Out of My Hands
by JenRar
Summary: When Stephanie is kidnapped, Ranger and the Merry Men will do everything in their power to bring her home. Will Ranger use this as an excuse to pull away, or will it bring them even closer together?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Ranger's POV**

I watched as Stephanie reached up to rub the back of her neck, unaware of anything going on around her—except the fact that I was near, although I wasn't sure it truly registered with her until I settled my hand under her hair as soon as she'd moved hers back to the keyboard.

"Babe."

Stephanie turned and smiled up at me, the weariness I'd noticed in her shoulders almost melting away. "Hi. When'd you get back?"

My lips turned up, unable to not smile back at the happy expression she wore. "Few minutes ago. Had to drop off paperwork on my desk, and then Santos needed something." Looking over at the clock on the wall, I raised an eyebrow. "Ready for dinner?"

She looked surprised. "What time is it?" Whirling around, she huffed out a breath when she noticed the clock. "Almost seven o'clock! Why didn't someone tell me?"

I held in my chuckle and spun her around. "Log off, Babe, and let's go eat. I called Ella and said we'd be up for dinner as soon as she was ready."

Stephanie nodded and smiled once more over her shoulder before reaching out for the mouse. With a few keystrokes, her data was secure, and then she picked up her bag from the desk beside her and stood, stretching.

With both of us in her small cubicle, it was a tight fit, but I was all right with that. That just meant it was easier to snake my arms around her and pull her to me. She let out a small sigh and wrapped her arms around my waist, laying her head on my chest.

"Long day?"

She nodded. "For the life of me, I couldn't find Tyrone yesterday, so I spent most of the day trying to figure out where the hel—heck he's hiding. Then Rodriguez must have known I was in the building, because when I took a break at two o'clock, I came back ten minutes later, and there were seven searches that needed running. _Seven,_ Ranger!"

Her voice had risen in pitch, so by the end, she was almost squeaky. I squeezed her neck gently with my thumb and forefingers, trailing the other up and down her spine, as I pressed a tender kiss to the top of her head. "Rodriguez loves you, Babe. You're the only one that can get searches back to him without multiple reminders and complaints."

She snorted. "I'd complain if I had any idea who I was complaining to," she grumbled, but the tension was slowly easing out of her, and when she took a step back, she grinned. "Now, Batman," she teased, raising an eyebrow. "I believe I was promised dinner..."

I chuckled, shaking my head, and maneuvered her out of her cubicle with a hand at the small of her back. "I'm betting Ella's adding something sweet for dessert, if I know her at all."

Stephanie moaned long and low. "God bless Ella," she said in a low tone that I was almost sure was meant for her ears alone.

Grinning, I guided her to the elevator and fobbed us up to seven.

When we walked into the apartment, Ella was just finishing setting up dinner on the bar in the kitchen.

"Fried chicken and mashed potatoes?" Stephanie squealed, her face alight with happiness.

I chuckled as Ella shot me a wink. "Ella's version, Babe."

The chicken was breaded and baked instead of fried, and I knew the mashed potatoes had as much cauliflower as potato, but apparently it was close enough for Stephanie, because she moaned after the first bite.

"Ella, will you adopt me?"

"Anytime, Stephanie, dear," Ella assured her. "There's chocolate mousse in the refrigerator for after, as well. Enjoy."

I murmured my thanks as Stephanie climbed off her stool to give Ella a hug. There was a whispered conversation between the two of them, and then Ella let herself out of the apartment as Steph sat back beside me and took another bite.

"Tell me about your day, dear," Stephanie teased, her eyes twinkling as she took a drink of the milk sitting in front of her plate.

"We signed that new jewelry store today. He'd been flip-flopping between us and a big firm in New York, but I was finally able to convince him that the local presence was the biggest consideration he needed to make."

Steph raised an eyebrow, something she'd finally mastered recently. "They have that small office here, right?"

Nodding, I said, "Yes, but there are only three men here, while the rest are based in New York City. We charge more, but they finally figured out the benefits of having us completely here in town were worth the cost." I bumped her shoulder with mine. "Next time, I need to bring you in. You'd have scooped them up a lot sooner, saved Tank and me some time and frustration."

She gave me a small 'Burg eye roll, but I could tell she enjoyed the praise. "Well, it's done now. So what else? You guys had a takedown, and since you didn't seem upset when you got back, I'm assuming it went well?"

I shrugged, swallowing the bite of my chicken before answering. "Guy put up a fight, but between the four of us, it was clean."

"Wow," she teased. "No bloodshed, huh?"

The corner of my lip tipped up in a smirk. "Well, the skip might've broken his nose on Tank's fist when he tried to fight him off."

Stephanie laughed, shaking her head.

That reaction was exactly why I'd begun opening up more and more, actively participating in our conversations, rather than just listening to her. I'd been attracted to Stephanie since the moment I saw her, and I'd loved her for nearly as long, but sharing my life—what parts I could—had brought us closer over the last two months since she and Morelli had called it quits. It seemed like it was going to stick this time, especially since he was already dating one of the new kindergarten teachers.

"What about you, Babe? You mentioned having trouble finding Jones?"

"Yes," she huffed, stabbing a piece of broccoli with her fork and chewing it before she spoke again. "From everything I'd guessed, he should've been at his sister's or his ex-girlfriend's places, but both swear they haven't seen him. Both say they've washed their hands of him, although I'm not sure I believe them. Still, Lula and I didn't see anything to show that he was there or that he'd been there. So we checked the bar he usually hangs out in, and Lula asked some of her Stark Street contacts, and nothing."

"Did you find anything today when you did some checking?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. I've got a couple of leads I can follow up on tomorrow. I have a few days until he has to be picked up, so I've got time. It just bugged me that he wasn't where I thought he would be."

Reaching over, I slid my hand under her hair and caressed the back of her neck in a gesture of support. "You'll get 'im, Babe. You always do."

"Thanks, Batman." She smiled and turned back to her food.

After dinner, we washed and dried the few dishes and stacked them on the counter for Ella to grab the next time she was in the apartment.

"C'mon, Babe," I said, taking her hand and pulling her with me out of the kitchen. "Let's watch a movie."

Stephanie smiled and squeezed my hand. "Sounds good. My pick this time, yeah?"

I smirked, nodding and already preparing myself for another viewing of the old _Ghostbusters._

~*~OoMH~*~

Thirty minutes into the movie—I'd been wrong about _Ghostbusters_; Steph has chosen _Batman Returns_, much to her amusement—I noticed that she couldn't sit still.

Pausing the movie, I looked down at her. "Ants in your pants?"

Grumbling, Steph shook her head and then sighed. "Something like that. I've been cooped up inside all day, and I can't sit still."

Turning the Blu-ray player and TV off with one click, I tossed the remote on the table in front of us and then stood, pulling Steph to her feet.

"Where are we going?"

"Roof."

Her faced brightened, and she flashed me a gorgeous smile. "Perfect," she said with a sigh.

We walked up the staircase to the roof access door, and I pushed it open, allowing Steph out ahead of me. The change was immediate. As soon as she got outside and the door shut behind us, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. I scrambled the camera and slid the key fob back in my pocket before wrapping my arms around her from behind. This was something we'd been doing at least four times a week since she and Morelli had called it quits, and I'd known she would be glad when I made the suggestion.

Opening her eyes, Steph tilted her head back and looked up at me, smiling, before turning her gaze on the view in front of us. "I love it out here," she said, sliding her arms on top of mine and holding me to her. "It makes me feel...free. Like I can see the world. I'm not a source of gossip up here. There's no pressure from the 'Burg or my mother. No skips with garbage. Just us and an open world."

I squeezed her a bit tighter and then looked over at the radio. "Wanna dance, Babe?"

When she hummed her agreement, I stepped over to the radio, turning it on low to the station we'd had it set on the last time we'd done this. Moving back to her, I turned her around and pulled her into my arms, settling her against my chest.

As we swayed back and forth, my arms around her, low on her back, and her head against my chest and hands grasping my shirt, I thought about our relationship.

The last two months had changed everything. I'd declined to resign my contract with the government. Even though Stephanie had broken up with Morelli, we hadn't jumped right into an intimate relationship. I'd wanted to take it slow, even if it was killing me. We spent almost every night together—dinner on seven or at her apartment, hanging out and watching movies or a Rangers game. Even though we were still affectionate, we were waiting to do anything more than kissing. She'd confessed that she didn't want me to think I was a rebound. And while I hadn't said it aloud, I knew she understood that I wanted to make sure she was truly over the cop and wasn't going to go back to him.

It was getting harder and harder to resist the urge I had to drag her into the bedroom and strip her naked—especially since half the time, we spent all night together.

A slight scuffle on the gravel atop the roof suddenly alerted me to the fact that we weren't alone. I pulled Stephanie behind me and yanked my gun from the waist of my cargos at the small of my back, training it on the four men that suddenly slipped out of the shadows. They were dressed in black, including greasepaint to cover their faces and gloves over their hands.

I immediately reached for the key fob in my pocket to unscramble the cameras, but was stopped when the man in front spoke, ordering me to freeze.

"Don't even think of reaching for the button in your pocket, Mr. Manoso," the man said calmly. "Drop your gun and kick it away."

Racking my brain, I tried to figure out if I knew the voice, but it was unfamiliar. There was no trace of a foreign accent—if anything, he sounded fairly local.

"I don't think so," I said, my voice just as deadly as the gun I had aimed at his head.

The other man seemed to be unaffected by either, and when he spoke, my heart jumped to my throat. "If you don't, Ms. Plum will have two extra holes in her body."

My blank face was firmly in place, but my inside was panicked as I felt Stephanie take a step up beside me and gasp. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the red dots of two laser sights: one in the middle of her chest, the other half an inch above the bridge of her nose.

_Fuck._

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N: Eek! Starting out with a bang! ;) Please review & let me know what you think!_

_Right now, I'm guessing this is going to end up eleven chapters, maybe twelve with an epilogue. I'll be posting twice a week, on Monday and Thursday._

_Thank you to Cara, Deb, & Kricket for pre-reading. Love you, ladies!_

– _Jen_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Stephanie's POV**

My heart stopped as I stepped up beside Ranger, and I gasped as I looked down and noticed the red dot on my chest. I'd watched enough movies to know that somewhere, a sniper had a gun trained on me. Ranger glanced at me, his face blank, but I knew him well enough to know that he wasn't calm inside. I steeled my backbone, determined to show him that I was okay, but inside, my stomach was a second away from revolting. Everything inside me was shaking.

Ranger looked back at the man in front of us. "Let her go and take me instead," he told him.

"No!" I cried.

His voice still scarily calm, deadly, the man said, "You get one warning, Mr. Manoso, before Ms. Plum will need a closed casket at her funeral."

A flash of emotion crossed Ranger's face before he shuttered her behind the blank face, and then he crouched and put the gun on the ground at his feet. As he moved back to a standing position, a muted shot rang out, and I flinched as it hit the ground at my feet. At first, I hoped that the sound of a gunshot would bring out the troops, but I realized that, with the silencer, no one would have heard it.

"Keep your hands away from your pockets," the man ordered. "Kick the gun away, and then get rid of the one at your ankle, too."

Panic button! He had to been reaching for that and the key fob to unscramble the cameras. I had those too. If I could get to it while everyone's attention was on Ranger...

Luckily, my hands were already at my sides, so I barely had to move. Just a twitch of my fingers, and I was able to press the button through my cargos.

There was no time to celebrate. As soon as Ranger kicked the guns away, two men left the group of four. One advanced on Ranger, while the other moved to my side, both with their guns trained our way. When he reached him, the man beside Ranger raised his gun.

Uncaring about the guns trained on me, I cried, "Ranger!" He had just enough to look over at me, opening his mouth to say something as the man brought the butt of his gun down on Ranger's head. Ranger dropped to the ground, landing in a crumpled heap.

Forgetting about anything but Ranger, I opened my mouth to scream, but the man who'd come to my side wrapped his arm around my head, slapped his hand over my mouth, and held his gun to my temple. The man who'd spoken to Ranger and threatened me shook his head and pointed his gun down at Ranger.

"Oh, Ms. Plum," he said in a calm, menacing voice. "If you do anything to draw attention to yourself, I'm afraid I'll have to shoot Mr. Manoso. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

I shook my head, my eyes wide and moving from the man, to his gun, to Ranger, and back again.

The man nodded, and suddenly, the hand over my mouth disappeared.

"Why?" I growled, looking up at the man a few feet in front of me. "Why are you doing this? What do you want?"

He clucked his tongue. "No time for that now. We must get going." Looking at the man who'd hit Ranger, he said, "Tie him up."

I watched as the man zip-tied Ranger's ankles and then turned him to his stomach and did the same to his arms behind his back before reaching into his pocket, pulling out his key fob, panic button, and phone and tossing them into a dark corner of the roof.

Seeming satisfied, the men began moving away.

Even though I struggled, I couldn't help but follow when the thug at my side grasped my upper arm and dragged me across to the other side of the roof. I gave one last longing, fearful glance behind me to see Ranger, still in a crumpled heap. I didn't know if he was dead or how hurt he was, but I had to keep myself believing that he would be okay and he would get us out of whatever trouble we were in and rescue me—since something had obviously gone wrong with my panic button—from the madman who was taking me.

Within minutes, I was strapped by harness to one man's chest, clutching onto him for dear life with my eyes closed as he followed two of the three men down the back of the building. I'd never been rappelling, and I hadn't imagined my first time being in the middle of my own kidnapping. Then again, if it had to happen to anyone...

I wasn't sure how long it took, but when I opened my eyes again, we were on the ground in the alley. The last man landed right after us, and then faster than I could blink, I was unhooked and being hurried away from the building, a gun pressed into my ribs preventing me from making any noise.

Moments later, we rounded the corner, and about halfway down the block, a dark panel van peeled away from the curb, pulling up beside us. One man slid the door open, and then I was unceremoniously tossed inside beside another man in the same clothes and face paint as the others, who climbed into the back with me, leaving the front passenger seat for the man in charge.

"Do it," that man ordered as the van turned the corner and drove away.

When one of the men reached for me, I shrank back. "Get the hell away from me," I hissed, batting at his hands.

"Settle down, Ms. Plum." The order came from the front seat, but the man didn't bother turning around. "Let Viper do his job."

To heck with that. I wasn't going to make it any easier on them. I glared at the man as he reached for me again, and when his hand moved to the pocket of my cargos, I struck, raking my nails across his cheek.

"Fuckin' bitch!" he roared, backhanding me.

My head snapped back, thumping against the side of the van and making my teeth ache and my ears ring.

There was a sigh from the front seat. "Ms. Plum, don't make me shoot you. I don't really want to do that, but if you force my hand..."

Another man grabbed me and pulled me around so my back was to his chest, and he held my arms as the man I'd hit—Viper—roughly slid his hands into my pocket and pulled out my panic button, tracker, and keys. He handed them to the man in front, and I watched as my lifeline to Ranger and my Merry Men was tossed out the window of the speeding vehicle.

My stomach was in knots, my head and face hurt, and I wanted to cry, but I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. Instead, when the man behind me let go of my arms and began to zip-tie my hands together behind my back, I glared in the darkness of the van at the men, memorizing what I could see of their faces.

Once I was roughly tossed back against the wall of the van, I finally spoke. "Who are you? Where are you taking me? What do you want?"

"You can call me Bob. I'm taking you to the boss."

_Bob__?_ I scoffed. Hawkins was no more his real name than Viper was for the man glaring at me from across the van.

"Okay, _Bob_," I said with a roll of my eyes. "What do you—or your boss—want with me?"

Bob blew out a breath. "Ms. Plum, just relax. We have a bit of a drive ahead of us. It'll go a lot smoother if you keep your mouth shut and try not to annoy the men with guns."

_Like I hadn't heard that before..._

Swallowing back the hatred and anger that were boiling up in my stomach, and biting my lip so I wouldn't give in to the tears that were threatening, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I had to be strong for Ranger. I had to stay alive to give them time to find me.

~*~OoMH~*~

Unsure of how long it had been since the men had taken me from RangeMan's roof, I was surprised when the van finally pulled to a stop and the engine shut off.

Bob turned around in the front seat and said, "Here's what's gonna happen, Ms. Plum. Cortez is gonna take the zip-tie off your wrists. You're gonna be a good girl and get out of the van quietly and follow me into the building. If you so much as breath a hint that something's wrong, I still have a man with a bead on Mr. Manoso. I won't hesitate to order him to take the shot. Are we clear?"

Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I nodded. "Where are we?"

Instead of answering, Bob and the driver got out of the van, and as soon as the man—Cortez—had cut the plastic around my wrists, the side door slid open.

I rubbed my wrists and rotated my shoulders before moving, trying to get the blood flowing. I'd been tied up in that awkward position for well over an hour, to my best guess, and everything was tingling. Bob gave me a piercing look and raised an eyebrow, motioning for me to get out of the vehicle.

With a put-upon sigh, I did as he bid, climbing out and immediately looking around to see if I recognized anything.

I didn't.

It was dark outside, with only a few stars, the moon, and a flickering street light illuminating our way. What looked to be a four-story apartment building rose up in front of us. As we got closer, I could see how run-down it was, with peeling paint and cracked foundation, as well as bars on the windows, a lot of which were cracked, if not broken or missing completely.

Bob was in the lead, with one of the men I'd seen on the roof but didn't know the name of behind him. Cortez had a grip on my upper arm, steering me through the door and to the stairs, while the other men trailed behind us.

Up one flight, two flights, three... By the time we exited on the fourth floor, I was breathing heavily and cursing the men under my breath.

They led me to an apartment on the end, and Bob unlocked two locks, flipping on the light as he walked inside. The rest of us followed, and Cortez and I continued down the hall to a closed door. He opened it and pushed me inside, turning on the light before shutting the door behind him without a word.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I looked around the dingy room. There was a mattress on the floor, a dingy white sheet covering it. The window was covered in black plastic sheeting, like a trash bag. The only light was the bare bulb hanging in the middle of the room. There were no pictures on the walls, no dresser, and the closet was empty—not even a hanger. In short, it looked like a big, empty prison cell, minus the toilet, mirror, and cinder block walls.

I didn't want to touch it, but my legs were so tired, my body so weary, that I sank to the thin mattress, curled in on myself, and cried.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Thank you again for the reviews! I love you guys! :)_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 3**

**Ranger's POV**

The moment I became conscious, I felt like my head was splitting in two. It took me a moment, but then in a flash, everything came rushing back. Shit! Stephanie! I struggled to sit up, which was more than a little difficult because of the way my hands and feet had been tied and the fact that every move I made threatened to send my stomach into a revolt.

_Man up, soldier,_ I barked in my head.

With one last push, I was finally upright, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth so I didn't throw up all over myself. I didn't need Bobby to know that I had a concussion.

I had no idea how long I'd been out, but I knew it hadn't been too long, as it wasn't any darker or colder, and the moon was in the same position as it had been before. I didn't hear or see anything, and if Steph was still on the roof, I'd have heard her. I needed to find her, but first, I had to get out of the restraints—zip-ties, I could tell immediately, and from the looks of the ones around my ankles, damn good ones. Unfortunately, whoever had put them on me had known what they were doing. They were good and tight, not leaving me any wiggle room at all.

By the time I stopped struggling with them, trying to get myself free, I knew a good ten minutes had passed. My wrists were stinging and slick with blood from where I'd rubbed them raw, but I wasn't much closer to freeing myself than I'd been when I started. Looking around, I saw the air conditioning unit and knew that was the only thing in view that I might be able to use to help free myself. I scooted one head-pounding inch at a time until my back was pressed against the corner. There was a rough edge, and with every ounce of energy I had, I began sawing up and down while stretching the plastic as much as I could.

Another ten minutes had passed before I finally felt the restraints give way, and my arms tingled and burned as the blood began circulating normally again. I immediately reached for the knife at my ankle, pulling it from the sheath and cutting the tie binding my legs. Once I'd slid the knife back into the holder, I pushed myself to my feet, regretting the sudden movement the moment my dinner made a reappearance.

Feeling my pockets, I realized they'd stripped me of everything—I'd been lucky they hadn't touched the knife—but I wasn't worried about that. I needed to get downstairs and start the search for Stephanie. As I headed to the door, my gaze fell on my guns, which were still where I'd kicked them, and I scooped them up, tucking them into my waist and the ankle opposite my knife before lurching to the door leading into the building.

I punched the code, flung open the door, and made my way down the stairs to five. It took me five times as long as it should've, since I had to stop several times to keep from throwing up again.

When I stumbled out onto the fifth floor, Cal was just turning the corner, heading for the stairs.

"Boss?" he called as I slammed a hand on the wall to hold myself up. Racing to my side, he slid an arm around me and yanked mine around his shoulders. "What happened?"

"Stephanie. They took Stephanie," I managed to get out before promptly leaning forward and retching. When I stood back upright, I bit out, "Take me to the control room."

Hawk and Zip looked up from the monitors as Cal ushered me through the door and to one of the empty seats.

I waved off their questions. "I need a phone." As soon as Cal handed me his, I sent out code "207SP," which told every man employed in the Trenton branch that Stephanie had been kidnapped and to report to the office ASAP.

Santos was the first to respond, even as Zip was pulling up the camera feed to the roof, which still showed scrambled. "What the hell happened?" he growled. "Weren't you and Stephanie on the roof?"

Giving him a curt nod and biting back a curse as my head swam, I barked out, "Find out how they got up there. Find my keys and unscramble the fucking camera."

Lester nodded once and grabbed Hal, who'd walked in shortly after him, and the two of them took off at a sprint for the stairs.

Tank and Bobby rushed in.

The expression on Tank's face was murderous. "From the roof?"

I nodded, wincing, and Bobby stepped forward.

"Tell us what happened, Ranger."

As I told them everything up to the point of being knocked unconscious, Bobby pulled a penlight from his pocket and started shining it in one eye and then the other.

"I'm fine," I growled, batting him away.

"No, you're not," Bobby said firmly. "You've got a knot on your temple, you're slurring your speech, and you've obviously been sick." He pointed to the front of my shirt, where I'd apparently missed some of the mess. "You've got a concussion, Ranger. You need to let me assess you."

"But Stephanie—"

"I'll take over until Bobby clears you," Tank interrupted.

Before I could protest, he turned back to the rest of the men, already issuing orders.

"What's the date?" Bobby asked, pulling my attention back to him.

I rattled it off easily, thinking that would be the end, but apparently not.

"And your birthday?"

"August twelve."

That went on for a couple of minutes before I was beyond over it. "That's enough, dammit," I hissed, fisting a hand as pain shot through my head. "I'm fine. I need to find Stephanie."

"I know how important it is, Ranger," Bobby said quietly. "I love her too—"

I raised an eyebrow, and Bobby shook his head, continuing without interruption.

"—but your health is important too."

"My health means nothing if I don't get Stephanie back," I told him, slamming my blank face into place, lest I start to fall to pieces.

"Carlos, man, Stephanie needs you right now...but she needs you healthy so you can find her."

My shoulders slumped with the knowledge that he was right.

After a moment, he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. "I'll get some ice for the bump and a mild pain killer. You have to tell me if you start to get blurry vision or your symptoms get worse. Otherwise, I'll take you out of rotation now and secure you where I can keep an eye on you." His look brooked no argument. "Feel me?"

I nodded. "Yeah, man. I got it."

"Good. Let's find our girl, hmm?"

Turning to Tank, I barked, "Report."

He stepped back. "We're waiting for Lester to get the camera on the roof unscrambled. Steph's tracker isn't showing up. My best guess is they found it and destroyed it. Her panic button isn't showing as activated."

"She'd have found a way to get to it," I said with a slow shake of my head. "So either something happened to the transmission, or she couldn't get to it."

Just then, Zip said, "Roof cam's up."

We all looked at the monitor to see Lester poking around on the side of the roof by the alley. The whole roof was lit up—he'd obviously turned on every light up there. We watched as he put his phone up to his ear, and seconds later, Tank's phone rang. Tank handed it to me without even looking at the caller ID.

"Tell me," I said in answer.

"There are two climbing ropes attached to the roof," Lester said without preamble.

I froze. How the hell had that happened? _When_ the hell had it happened?

"They had on gloves," I said, "but dust for prints anyway."

"Hal's on it already. Send someone up for your phone, and I'll help him finish that up," he said before hanging up.

"On it, boss," Zero said before turning away and heading quickly for the stairs.

"Zip, cue up the camera to this morning and run it fast."

Zip nodded once at me and did as I'd ordered.

Within a span of five minutes, we'd watched the eight hours before the camera scrambled, but there were two problems.

The moment the camera scrambled, there were no climbing ropes...and no one, not even Stephanie and I, on the roof. I stood there for several minutes, sure I wasn't seeing what I thought I was seeing—or not seeing, as the case was.

Hector, our electronics whiz, suddenly barreled his way through the gathered crowd, telling them in Spanish to move out of his way. "_Muévete. Déjenme pasar._"

As soon as he was seated behind the control panel, after Zip gave up his seat, Hector ran the tape back several hours. He played it on normal speed for nearly five minutes, then re-ran the same few minutes a second time. Just before I lost the tenuous hold I had on my control, he pointed at the screen. "See this? Watch the birds."

I watched as two birds swooped onto the screen, landing near each other on the roof. Minutes later, the birds vanished. They didn't fly away. They were simply there one minute and gone the next.

"Explain," I growled darkly.

There was fire in his eyes as he turned back to me, glaring over his shoulder at the monitor once before speaking. "Someone looped the camera. That's why we don't see you and Stephanie come onto the roof and why we don't see the ropes or the men. And look..." He switched to the alley camera, which looked right—except again, there were no ropes.

"Can you—"

He was gone after a single nod, shoving his way back through the crowd of men. I knew he'd hole up in his work room in the basement, poring over the footage until he'd traced the source.

Zip, who'd taken his place back in front of the monitors as soon as Hector had vacated his seat, suddenly said in a chilly voice, "Got something, boss."

He'd switched to one of the cameras on the corner of the lot, rolling it back. Everything looked fine...until it didn't. Without warning, I watched Stephanie being dragged out of the alley. The men—who were indeed dressed very similarly to RangeMan employees, in all black—forcibly shoved her into a black panel van, which then took off. Zip switched cameras as soon as the van was out of sight, rolling it back to catch the van as it drove right by in front of the office, seeming without a care in the world, minus the fact that in the back of that van, they had the woman I loved.

"No markings and no plate," Zip reported, "but I'll send it all to Hector and see if he can pull out some good images of the van and the men."

As he cued the video back up of Stephanie being dragged to the van, my control finally snapped. I spun around and slammed my fist into the wall, feeling the Sheetrock give under the force of the hit.

I ignored the blood dripping from my knuckles when I pulled back, and taking a deep breath, I turned back to the men and began barking out orders, sending them running from the room as they got their assignments.

_Stay strong, Babe. I will find you, if it's the last thing I ever do._

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N: Ooooh, things are beginning to come together. ;) You'll learn more next chapter from these guys because I couldn't not do more in Ranger's POV. There's just too much going on!_

_Thank you again to my prereaders. Ladies, I love ya!_

_On a side note, starting with the next chapter, I'll be posting a day early on FictionPad and TWCS, because I want to get as many people on to those sites—and away from FFn—as I can. ;) So find me there if you want updates on Sunday & Wednesday!_

_Now, please, let me know what you thought. I wanna hear your theories, what you liked, what you didn't..._

– _Jen_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: I'm glad you guys are enjoying this story! Thank you for letting me know! :) I know you have questions, and some will be answered here, but not all, so strap in!_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 4**

**Ranger's POV**

Moments after the men scattered, Cal handed Bobby his medical bag, and when I started to balk, he stared me down until I sat and held out my hand. He pulled out the bottle of hydrogen peroxide, held some gauze under my hand, and began to pour the cleansing liquid over the cuts and broken skin on my knuckles from where I'd hit the wall. My blank face slid into place. I'd been shot, stabbed, stunned, and had the shit beat out of me, and still, the cleaner that bubbled as it soaked into the injured tissue stung like a son of a bitch.

When I looked around, I noticed that Tank had left the room. I knew he was calling in contract workers, as was procedure when something big went down that needed all our attention. I needed to call Morelli. Even though he and Steph were through, I knew he cared about her, and he would be more than a little pissed off if he weren't in the loop and searching for her himself.

"Uh, boss?"

I looked over, and Hawk was watching me nervously. Raising an eyebrow, I stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue.

He steeled his backbone under my gaze. "Can Zip handle the monitors so I can get out there and search? I feel like I could do more good out on the street right now."

Hawk—Brian Hawkins—had been a member of the RangeMan team for two years. He was ex-Navy, good with knives, but had a problem with following orders, which was why he'd been put on probation four months ago and restricted to monitor duty for six months. Five of us had been on a takedown, and he'd jumped before I'd given the all-clear, which had ended with Hal getting grazed by a bullet. Hal had been fine after a few stitches, but Hawk had been limping for a week after spending time on the mats with both myself and Tank. We'd given him the option of the six months probation, which came with monitor duty and reduced pay, or termination—of the non-lethal kind. He'd chosen probation.

So although he had two months left, I agreed that he would do more good searching the streets than he would sitting behind the monitors. I nodded once. "Go." Looking to Zip, I said, "Tank's calling in contract workers so you can get out there, too."

He nodded and turned back to the monitors. He knew as well as I did that all our clients had to be covered. Stephanie was my priority, but I had good men at my back to cover the rest of the business until I found her.

"We done?" I asked Bobby, who was putting the cap back on the brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide after he'd used it on my wrists, too.

He nodded. "Could probably use a couple of stitches on that one cut, but I know you won't sit still for it, and it's in a place that might not hold anyway. Try to keep it clean."

I patted his shoulder as I stood and moved by him, pulling my phone out of my pocket on the way to my office.

Once there, I closed the door and sank down into my chair, taking a moment to simply breathe. I had to keep myself under control. If I lost it, I'd have no chance of finding my Babe, and I knew it.

Dialing Morelli's number from memory, I pushed the heel of my hand against my eye, trying to counter the headache I was still feeling—although it had lessened a lot after the pain medication Bobby had forced on me.

"Manoso," he said in greeting after the second ring.

"Someone took Stephanie," I said without preamble.

I heard a noise and could almost see him sit up from where he'd been lounging on his couch, his feet thumping to the floor from where they'd been on his coffee table. He was instantly more alert when he asked, "What do you mean? Took her from where?"

Putting my pride aside, I told him exactly what had happened and what we knew so far.

"You haven't heard from them?"

"No. I expect to anytime."

He was quiet. "Call it in to TPD?"

"They'd just get in my way." When he didn't say anything, I continued, "I'm calling you because I know you won't and because I know you still care about her. Am I wrong about either of those?"

I heard him sigh and then rustling in the background, along with a sleepy female voice, before he said, "No, you aren't wrong. I'll hit the streets, talk to some contacts. Let me know when you hear from them."

I hung up and tossed my phone to the desk just as there was a single knock on the door, and then Tank walked in without waiting for an answer.

"Contract guys are coming in to take over monitors and be here in case they're needed," he said.

Nodding, I scrubbed my hand over my face. "When they get here, send Zip out, too. Morelli's been notified."

"Her parents?"

Looking up at him, I shook my head. "Not yet. There's nothing they could do, and they'd be up all night worrying. Let 'em sleep. If we haven't heard anything or found her by morning, I'll go see them."

He nodded once and then looked over to the door when it burst open as Hector rushed into the office, Bobby and Santos on his heels.

As soon as Santos shut the door, Hector spoke.

"The system was hacked from the inside," he reported, holding up a hand when all of us began speaking at once. "Someone inside RangeMan recorded the feed from three days ago and looped it into the feed earlier this afternoon."

"How do you know when they recorded it?" Tank asked.

"I ran a scan, comparing it to old recordings, and they matched up," Hector explained.

"Who was on shift this afternoon?"

"Sisco and I were," Santos said, looking absolutely furious.

Fransisco Hernandez was one of our newest hires—he'd only been at RangeMan for two months—but he'd come highly recommended after getting out of the Army.

"Find him," I growled, directing the order to the room at large.

"Wait," Santos argued. "What time, Hector?" When Hector raised a brow in question, Lester clarified, "What time was the recording looped into the feed today?"

Hector named a time about two hours before the shift change.

"I was already gone. Hawk came down about half an hour before that and said he was tired of sitting around in his house, so he asked if I wanted off shift early. I gladly took off early and let him take over."

"Is Sisco here?"

Tank nodded at me. "He's on four. I told him to stay here to be a runner if we needed someone, since he doesn't have the contacts around town yet that the others do."

"Bring him in," I said.

Three minutes later, Tank and Sisco were back, and I asked if anything unusual had happened that afternoon in the control room, not giving him any information into what was going on.

"No, not really," he answered with a shrug. "Hawk came on duty, and a few minutes later, he said I could take a break, since I needed to get something to drink and to use the bathroom."

Turning to my computer, I logged into the system and found the feed for the break room, rewinding back to the time in question. Sisco entered the break room at 1535, exited ten minutes later. Then I switched to the control room camera for the same time, and while it was clear that Hawk was at the computer and watching the monitors, I couldn't see what he was doing. Logging out of that part of the system, I then pulled up the records to see who had worked three days before.

_Hawkins, Brian., Monitors, 1330-1930._

Whatever I was feeling must have shown on my face, because I heard Santos usher Sisco out and then shut the door behind him.

"Boss?"

Ignoring them, I pulled up the trackers, finding the one for Hawk.

"The bastard's running," I snarled. "He's not out on the street. He's at his house."

"Let's go find him," Santos said eagerly.

Tank put a hand on his shoulder. "I need you here, man. Brown has to go—" I shot him a look, but Tank just raised an eyebrow. "Don't argue, Rangeman. You know you're not operating at a hundred percent right now." When I didn't say anything, he turned back to Santos. "I have to go to keep the boss from killing Hawkins before we get what we need from him."

Santos looked disappointed, but nodded.

"As much as I'd like to help grab the _cabrón,_" Hector sneered as he called Hawkins a bastard, "I need to be here to help find the van. The traffic cams here in Trenton leave a lot to be desired, so I'm gonna have to search feeds from RangeMan-secured buildings, if not hack into others."

I nodded. "Find Cal, and we'll take him with us," I ordered Tank. "Be ready to roll in five. I'm not letting him get away."

The others nodded and then cleared out of my office, leaving me to say a silent prayer to the heavens to keep my Babe safe.

~*~OoMH~*~

Hawkins lived in a small house only a few miles from RangeMan, and ten minutes later, the four of us—Cal and Bobby were at the back door, while Tank was with me in the front—entered the premises, guns drawn, just as Hawkins came into the living room, a bag over his shoulder.

He looked over his shoulder, back toward the bedrooms, and his hand twitched, like he wanted to reach for his gun.

"Give me a reason," I growled. The only thing holding me back from shooting him between the eyes was that I needed information from him—that, and the fact that it would let him off too easy.

Hawkins lowered the bag to the floor and raised his hands.

As Cal and Bobby came into the living room, their guns, like Tank's, still pointed at the traitor in front of me, I rushed up to him and put my gun at his temple. "You fuck. You have no idea how much I wanna pull this trigger."

Anger flashed in his eyes, but he stayed silent.

"Nothing to say for yourself?"

Again, nothing.

Tucking my gun in my waistband, I pulled my fist back and let it fly, catching him square on the jaw.

"You fucking set her up to be taken, you bastard," I growled, sweeping my leg out and catching his so he dropped to the floor. When he moved his hand to his side, going for his gun, which had fallen, I kicked it out of the way. "Come on, you piece of shit. Stand up."

The minute he had his feet back under him, I punched him in the gut and followed with an uppercut that sent him reeling, crashing into the entertainment center and TV.

"C'mon, man," Tank said, pulling me back when I went for him again. "Let's get him back to RangeMan, where we can...extract all the information we need."

"I'm not talkin' to you," Hawkins slurred, spitting out a mouthful of blood from the last hit I'd given him.

With one last kick, his head bounced off the hardwood floor and his eyes closed.

Bobby knelt next to him, checking his pulse, and then stood. "He's out, but he's alive."

I turned away and stomped out of the house before I changed that, trusting my men to get what we needed from the house.

~*~OoMH~*~

Two hours later, in one of RangeMan's secure cells in the basement, Hawkins was a bloody mess. He was still denying knowing anything about the kidnapping.

"You have so many enemies," he croaked, "it could be any number of—"

"We have evidence, damn you," I thundered, nailing him with another punch to the solar plexus, "including a text from you to an unknown number earlier today, proclaiming it done."

Hector had done some searching when we'd gotten back to RangeMan and given him the cell phone that had been in the man's pockets when the guys searched him before bringing him out to the SUV. Unfortunately, the number wasn't working anymore. Hector had said that, most likely, it had been a burner phone, and once the kidnappers had gotten the text, they'd destroyed it.

"Someone's setting me up, man," Hawkins cried. "Or maybe you're making it all up because you're still pissed about the takedown and you need someone to blame since she got taken on your watch."

I had my gun out and at his temple before I could blink. Then his words penetrated the haze of anger clouding my mind, and I realized why he'd done it. The fucker was still pissed about being put on probation and monitor duty.

"That's what this is about," I fumed. "You're throwing a temper tantrum because you're angry about something _you_ caused?"

Hawkins scoffed, rolling his eyes, which wasn't easy, considering one of them was swollen nearly completely closed.

"Tell me where she is!" I growled, digging my gun into his temple.

"How's your mama and sisters, Hawk?" Hector's voice pulled me back from the brink, and I raised an eyebrow when Hawkins began struggling.

"Leave them out of this, damn you!" he screeched. "They have nothing to do with anything."

"Neither did Stephanie," I said calmly. "Tell me what you know, or..." I shrugged, like it meant nothing to me.

I'd never bring his family into things, but Hawkins didn't know that. He began sobbing. "Please, leave them alone. They're innocent."

"Talk," I ordered. "Now."

"I don't know anything," he started, wincing when I jammed my gun in harder. "Really! I went to a bar in Philadelphia a few months ago and was bitching to some old friends about the probation and about how, with the cut in pay, my bookie was gonna be unhappy. A man overheard and made me an offer: He'd pay off all my debt and help me get revenge on you and RangeMan. All I had to do was promise him a favor when the time came. I was half drunk and didn't know—"

"No excuses," I growled, tapping his temple with the barrel of the gun before stepping back. "Finish."

"He paid off my bookie and then called a couple of weeks ago, telling me what to record and when and then when to loop it in. That's all. I didn't know what he was gonna do, I swear!"

"That's not all you did," I breathed, stepping back into his space and leaning down until we were nose to nose. I was deadly calm as I said, "Someone from the inside had to set up the first climbing rope and tell the kidnappers about me taking her to the roof in the first place."

Hawkins winced and slowly nodded. "I screwed up, man. I was pissed. Then I couldn't get out of it. They'd already paid off the bookie, so if I backed out, I knew they'd kill me."

I straightened and pulled my gun up, touching the end to his forehead as I cocked it so the sound echoed in the concrete-walled room. "What makes you think I won't?"

The strong scent of urine filled the air as Hawkins lost control of his bladder, and he began babbling almost incoherently.

"You'll tell us everything you can remember about the man you spoke to, the bar, the plan. Everything. We'll turn you over to the police once we have Stephanie back. But know this..."

I waited until he was looking up at me before I finished.

"If something happens to her, we won't need to worry about the police."

Hawkins flinched, and I turned, slamming my way out of the cell without another word. I'd leave Hector to get the information. If I stayed in the room, I'd have to work to keep from killing the fucker that had helped get Stephanie kidnapped, and without his information, I wasn't sure I'd be able to find her.

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N: There you have it. Yes, there was a not-so-Merry Man setting them up. At least now they have a direction to look! :)_

_For those unhappy with the ability to read on FictionPad with your mobile devices, be patient and keep an eye on my author's notes. They are working hard at putting together the best possible mobile version. When they have it ready, I'll certainly let you know! :)_

_Okay, please leave me a review and let me know what you thought, good or bad!_

_Next update...Sunday on FP and TWCS and Monday on FFn. Mwah! – Jen_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N #1: Thank you so much for your reviews! I love that you guys are getting so into this story! :)_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 5**

**Stephanie's POV**

I jerked awake when a door slammed somewhere close. My heart was racing, and I immediately started breathing deep, heavy breaths, worried I was going to pass out. I didn't know how long I'd been asleep, but my neck was stiff from sleeping sitting up against the wall. There was no way I wanted to lie down on the mattress. Sitting on it was bad enough, but at least my cargos were between it and my skin.

Cautiously, I got to my feet, rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands. I'd left the light on, afraid of being in the dark with the kidnappers only a few feet away from me in the other rooms. When no one immediately came to my door—I wasn't sure if there were cameras or a microphone I hadn't yet spotted, so I didn't know if someone were watching or listening to me—I stepped over to the window. I'd been too frightened before, when they'd first dump me in the room, to do any exploring.

The plastic over the window was taped to the frame with duct tape, so I carefully, but quickly, began scraping up a corner with my fingernail, picking at it until I had enough loose that I could hold onto the edge of the tape and pull. I uncovered it enough to see out, but what I saw wasn't encouraging—starting with the bars on the windows. It was still dark out, although the sky was beginning to lighten, so that told me it was around five in the morning, which meant I'd been gone from RangeMan for between seven and seven and a half hours. Being five a.m., there was no one outside, which meant there was no one I could call out to for help—although, just seeing the condition of the building when we first arrived and looking at the few windows of neighboring apartments that I could see, I wasn't sure the people in this neighborhood would help me at all.

I knew Ranger had to be going out of his mind by now. He hated it when I was kidnapped, but to know I'd been taken from his building and right in front of his eyes... I had to believe that he was okay after he'd been knocked out by the gun, that they hadn't shot him after getting me to the van.

I'd hoped that my panic button would alert the guys on five, but I'd pressed it through the fabric of my pants, so maybe I hadn't pressed it hard enough or pressed right on the button. But Ranger would find me—him and his merry band of men in black—even without my tracker, and they would rescue me, since it didn't look like I had the means to escape. Being four stories up and behind bars, with nothing in the room to fashion into a weapon, was damned discouraging.

I re-taped the plastic bag across the window and realized it had been hours since I'd used the bathroom or had anything to drink. Crossing the room, I pounded on the door, calling out to whoever happened to still be in the apartment.

"Hey! I have to use the bathroom!" I waited a moment, and when I didn't hear anything, I yelled again.

The lock suddenly clicked, and I stepped back just in time for the mean-looking guy nicknamed Viper to swing the door open. I waited for him to speak, but when he simply took a step back and motioned with the hand not holding the gun, I scooted by him and moved in the direction he'd indicated.

As I walked, I tried to look around to see as much as I could of the apartment. There wasn't much. I saw a closed door in the middle of the hall, not nearly wide enough to be a room. A linen closet or something, maybe. To the right of the bathroom, which was straight at the end of the hall, another door stood open, revealing a bedroom, but it was empty, much like the one I was being held in. The only difference was there was a sheet—a clean one—on the mattress, along with a blanket and pillow, and scattered around were some cans of Coke and bottles of water, as well as a small ceramic lamp.

"Keep moving," Viper said, gently shoving me in the back to get me to take a few more steps into the bathroom. "You have two minutes."

I glared at him as I shut the door, immediately turning the little knob that would lock it—not that I thought that would keep him out. It was more for peace of mind than anything.

The bathroom was devoid of anything, including soap and a hand towel, although I was grateful to see the roll of toilet paper on the edge of the sink. I decided to make a quick search of the bathroom. Aside from the medicine chest—empty, of course—and the old towel bar, there was nothing. I considered breaking the mirror or pulling off the towel bar so I'd have a weapon, but I knew that was a futile wish. The noise would just draw the attention of the man in the hall, and I'd be more likely to get myself shot than do any damage myself. The only window was too small for me to climb out of—even if we hadn't been on the fourth floor. With a sigh, I turned back to the toilet. I hadn't expected to find anything, but a bobby pin or razor that someone had left behind would've been great.

I quickly did what I needed to do and was just rinsing my hands as best I could under the hot water when Viper pounded on the door.

"Ten seconds before I bust it open," he grumbled.

Rolling my eyes, I dried my hands on my cargos and unlocked the door. Pulling it open, I said, "See? Still here. I'm a woman. It takes me longer than thirty seconds to use the bathroom and wash my hands." Okay, so maybe being a smart-ass wasn't the wisest option, but I wasn't going to just let him walk all over me, either.

His expression didn't change as he nudged me back down the hall to the bedroom. Once I was inside, he pulled the door shut, and then I heard the lock engage, leaving me alone once more.

~*~OoMH~*~

I was so tired of sitting all alone in the room. I'd already named all the candy I could remember, sung "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" and "The Ants Go Marching" to myself, named off all the Merry Men I'd broken somehow—sixteen, if you didn't count Cal when he fainted after Val's water broke; I hadn't counted him, since it wasn't technically me that did it—and counted to thirty minutes. Or...okay, I'd gotten bored at five. I was back to sitting on the mattress, my back against the wall, and trying to count imperfections in the walls and ceiling. Loud voices interrupted my count at seventy-three.

"_Still on the job?"_ I recognized that as Bob, and he sounded incredulous.

"_Yeah, boss. That's what Black, who's part of the team parked outside Fulcrum, said."_

"_They need the A Team off and B Team on, dammit,"_ Bob cursed. _"Maybe we need to give them a little...incentive..."_

_Incentive?_ That didn't bode well for me... I scrambled to my feet, prepared to fight if I had to.

Moments later, the lock on my door clicked and the door was thrown open as Bob and Viper stomped into the room.

Shit. I knew I shouldn't have thought about being bored.

"Take a seat, Ms. Plum," Bob growled.

When I hesitated, Viper stepped up beside me, and I heard the distinctive sound of a gun being cocked before the cold steel pressed to my temple.

I nearly tripped in my haste to sit down on the mattress as Bob pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. Putting his finger to his lips in a gesture for me to be quiet, Bob began to speak.

"My name doesn't matter, Mr. Manoso."

_Ranger!_

"She's fine...for now." He shook his head as he listened. "Now, now. None of that. I'm just calling to give you a warning."

After a couple of seconds, he nodded once at Viper, who suddenly backhanded me, making me cry out from the unexpected hit. Then Bob hung up the phone.

Two minutes went by with my eyes closed as I waited for the bullet that would end my life. So when I heard Bob's voice again, I nearly choked on the gasp I took.

"Can you behave now?" he asked. I looked up, but he wasn't looking at me. He had his phone pressed to his ear again. "You have three hours, Mr. Manoso. If you don't find her by then, I'll send her back to RangeMan...one body part at a time. What do you think? A finger or an ear first? Hmm, choices, choices..."

My stomach lurched and I nearly threw up what little was there.

"She's fine, but if you must..." Bob held the phone out and pressed a button before motioning to me.

"R-Ranger?" I stuttered.

"Babe," he said, and in that one word, he was asking, "Are you okay?"

At the sound of his voice, I burst into tears. "I'm okay."

"Did they hurt you?" He sounded calm and in control, but I could also hear the worry in that question.

I wanted so badly to reach out and grab onto the phone like a lifeline. Instead, I hugged my knees and shook my head, even though he couldn't see me. "No, they just slapped me when I fought back in the van."

Ranger let loose a low, rumbling growl. "Are you comfortable?"

I quickly tried to think of how to give him a clue as to where I was being held. I'd been kidnapped and kept in an apartment on Stark Street the year before, so maybe... I grunted. "About as comfortable as I was when Ronald Jackson kidnapped me last year, but at least my butt isn't numb anymore from the long van ri—"

Bob interrupted. "That's enough." He took the phone back, clicked it off speaker, and said, "You've got three hours, Mr. Manoso." After a moment, he gave a dark grin and said calmly, "Because I can."

He hung up the phone and slid it into his pocket as he and Viper left the room.

Heedless of the dingy sheet, I slid down to my side, curled up in a ball, and began to sob.

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N #2: Eek! I told you we'd hear more from Steph when it was needed, and that was definitely needed. You'll get Ranger's POV of the phone call next chapter, I promise. :)_

_If you're a Twi-fic fan, I have a new outtake for my story, Full Circle, from the Fandoms4Animals compilation. So check that out. :) Also, my writing partner for several stories, Drotuno, started posting the new installment of her Gravity series (featuring Mercward and his sweetness), called Fire & Ice. So check that out, too! You can find a link to my story on my profile, of course, and Drotuno is on my favorite author list._

_Let me know what you thought! I love hearing your theories and wishes! :)_

_Until next time (Weds for FP & TWCS, Thurs for FFn)... Mwah! – Jen_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N #1: Thank you for all the reviews! Know that I read and appreciate each & every one of them. Now, let's catch up with Ranger! :)_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 6**

**Ranger's POV**

We'd been searching Philadelphia for over an hour. After Hector had finished extracting all the information he could from Hawkins, he'd gone back to work tracking the van. He'd been able to follow it out of town using the traffic cams set up on Route 1, but we'd gotten back with Hawkins before he'd had a chance to track it into Philly. We'd rolled out ten minutes after he'd gotten all the information he could from the man, and about halfway to the city, he'd called.

~*~OoMH~*~

"_Yo."_

"_I had it, but it went off the grid."_

_I growled. "Explain."_

_Hector sighed, something each of the men—myself included—had picked up from Stephanie. "There are some...rough neighborhoods in Philly. You know that as well as I do. I got the van getting into town, but lost it when it exited I-95 in South Philly."_

"_Find it," I said coldly. "That's our best lead."_

"_Ranger, if they went to one of the areas of town that I think they did, there are no traffic cameras in those areas."_

"_Private ones?"_

"_I have the search program running now, but it'll take a while."_

"_Call me if you get a hit."_

"_Wait!" Hector exclaimed. "I got shots of the driver and passenger, as well as the plate number."_

_I waited, knowing he would explain further._

"_The toll booth going from Jersey to Pennsylvania. The shots aren't great—in fact, you can barely make out a profile on the passenger—but it's better than nothing. I have a search running on the plate now, but I would bet it comes up stolen."_

"_Send it all to all of us."_

_There was a pause, and then he said, "Done."_

~*~OoMH~*~

I'd hung up the phone, trying to remember that it wasn't Hector's fault, and then conferenced in Tank and Santos, who were in the other two SUVs we'd brought to Philadelphia.

After updating them, we'd decided to split up the areas of town to comb through. Santos, Cal, and Ram were searching the northwest side of town, while Tank, Zip, and Zero were handling the northeast, leaving my SUV, with Bobby and Morelli, to search the south side. Each section of town had a handful of areas where drugs and poverty were most prevalent. With nothing more to go on, that was our best bet.

At just after 0600, my phone rang, and a number I didn't recognize came up on caller ID. I could hear Bobby in the driver's seat already on the phone with Hector, telling him to trace the call. We'd been expecting to need it, so I knew he was ready.

With a glance at Morelli in the rearview mirror, I clicked Accept.

"Who is this?" I asked, my voice deadly calm.

"My name doesn't matter, Mr. Manoso." It was the same man who'd been on the roof, the one who'd done all the talking.

"How is Stephanie?"

"She's fine...for now."

I lost my calm facade at that. "You son of a bitch. If you touch a hair on her head—"

"Now, now. None of that. I'm just calling to give you a warning."

I cursed at him again, threatening in Spanish to cut off his balls and serve them to him for lunch if he didn't tell me where to find Stephanie, but I nearly crushed the phone in my grip when I heard her cry out and then the click of the phone as the man hung up.

"Did we get him?" I growled to Bobby.

He was quiet for a minute, and then his shoulders slumped and he shook his head.

"Fuck!"

"Ranger, you gotta calm down, man," Bobby said firmly, not blinking when I glared his way.

Finally, my head dropped and I nodded.

When the phone rang two minutes later, I answered it without saying a word.

"Can you behave now?" he asked.

"What do you want in exchange for Stephanie?"

"You have three hours, Mr. Manoso. If you don't find her by then, I'll send her back to RangeMan...one body part at a time. What do you think? A finger or an ear first? Hmm, choices, choices..."

It took all my years of training to hold in my reaction, and calmly, I said, "I need proof that she's okay. I want to speak to her."

"She's fine, but if you must..."

"R-Ranger?" she stuttered.

"Babe," I sighed.

She burst into tears, and when she spoke, her voice was watery. "I'm okay."

"Did they hurt you?"

"No," she said, "they just slapped me when I fought back in the van."

I growled, low and rumbling, at the thought of them putting their hands on her. I knew we had limited time and I needed information, so I had to be very careful about what I asked next. "Are you comfortable?"

There was a pause, and then she said, "About as comfortable as I was when Ronald Jackson kidnapped me last year, but at least my butt isn't numb anymore from the long van ri—"

The man interrupted, but I had at least some of what I'd wanted to know.

"That's enough." When he spoke again, I could tell he'd taken the phone off speaker. "You've got three hours, Mr. Manoso."

I had to ask. "Why are you doing this?"

After a moment, the man answered calmly, "Because I can."

Then he was gone.

I hung up and scrubbed a hand over my face before looking over at Bobby. "Please tell me we got something."

He took a minute, tapping the Bluetooth button in his ear, but then he cursed and flung it to the dashboard. "He narrowed it down to a ten-block radius. Thirty more seconds, and he'd have had her."

Cursing, I nodded. "He knew. That's why he cut me off when he did."

"Probably," Morelli piped in from the back. "It shows he's a professional, for sure."

I nodded wearily and then turned to Bobby. "Where are we going?"

"North."

~*~OoMH~*~

We were headed back up I-95 North when my phone rang again. I slammed my blank face into place until I saw Santos's number on the caller ID.

"We found the van," he rushed to say before I'd even said a word. "Sending coordinates to your phone now."

"Where?"

"A Wawa's grocery store that's open twenty-four hours. Exit 23."

I hung up, feeling hope for the first time in hours. Checking my phone, I put the coordinates into the GPS.

We were only a couple of miles from the site, but time seemed to drag. When we finally pulled into the parking lot, Bobby drove around until he spotted the other two RangeMan SUVs, effectively blocking in the same van that we'd seen on the security footage from Trenton.

I jumped out and made my way quickly over to the other guys, with Bobby and Morelli right on my heels. "Stephanie?"

"Not here, Rangeman," Tank said, settling a hand on my shoulder. "But this is the one. Verified it with Hector—plates came back stolen, by the way. I told him I'd let you know."

I nodded once. "Anything?"

"Looks like it's been cleaned out," Santos said, emerging from the inside of the van, "but whoever did it was a bit sloppy. I found some trash, which you wouldn't think would be a big deal, but there were several boxes and a few cups and napkins from a place called Fiore Pizza."

I knew I could call information, but Hector would be faster. Once connected to him, I said, "Need an address for Fiore Pizza. Find the closest one to my coordinates." They wouldn't stray too far from wherever they were hold up—to eat or drop off the van.

Hector hummed. "Only one, boss." He rattled off an address on Kensington Avenue and then said, "Just over a mile from you."

"Get me the owner's name and address," I said immediately.

When Hector came back to the phone, he said, "Sending to you now."

I hung up and turned back to the men. "Morelli, Brown, you're with me. Everyone else, pick apart this van and keep your eyes and ears open."

I didn't wait to find out if they'd listened. I held my hand out for the keys, glaring at Bobby when he hesitated. "I'm fine," I growled. "Headache's gone. I'm not dizzy. Give me the keys."

After a moment, he nodded and tossed them to me before climbing into the passenger seat, leaving the back for Morelli once again.

It was 0720 when we pulled up to the small brick house. Before I could get out of the SUV, Morelli spoke up.

"Ranger, it might be best if I go up to the door first. Alone."

"Explain," I ordered, refraining from biting his head off like I wanted to.

I had to give him credit. He didn't so much as flinch under my glare.

"It's early in the morning, and we're strangers. You and Brown...well, you're a little intimidating to people—especially strangers. As much as I might wish it were true, I'm not quite as scary. Plus, I carry a badge. Most law-abiding citizens will open their door and listen if it's a cop doing the talking." When I nodded for him to go on, he continued, "Let me go up, knock on his door, and explain what's going on. Then you can come in and show him the pictures and ask your questions."

After a moment, I nodded once.

Morelli didn't hesitate to step out of the vehicle and make his way to the front door.

I hit the steering wheel, letting out my frustration at Morelli and the situation.

"He was right," Bobby said from beside me as we watched Morelli knock on the front door and pull out his credentials, including badge, when the door opened.

"I know, dammit," I growled, piercing him with a glare before turning back to watch the conversation at the house. "I know," I repeated quietly.

Nicolas Fiore was a few inches shorter than Morelli, with dark hair graying at the temples. He crossed his arms over his chest, listening intently as Morelli explained the reason behind our visit. When he looked over at the SUV, I had to admire his backbone. He gave us and our vehicle a long, perusing glance before nodding once and taking a step back, holding the door open.

Morelli turned and motioned with his head for us to join them.

Bobby and I climbed out of the vehicle and followed the men as they entered the house. We stepped directly into the living room, and I made my way to Fiore, holding out my hand.

"Carlos Manoso," I said in introduction. "This is my partner, Bobby Brown. Thank you for your willingness to help."

Fiore shook our hands and nodded. "Whatever I can do. Mr. Morelli explained that your friend was kidnapped from Trenton and you believe she's here?"

"Yes, sir," I agreed. "I'm assuming he gave you all the details?"

He nodded. "He said you have pictures?"

I pulled out my phone, opened the photos Hector had sent us, and handed it to him. "Not great ones, but yes. There are three—two men and the van."

Fiore spent several minutes staring at the images, flipping back and forth several times, before handing the phone back to me. "I don't recognize either of those men, unfortunately," he said. I felt the hope inside me begin to fizzle, until he said, "The van, on the other hand... I'm not sure. There's nothing distinctive about it, but something is picking at my brain about it."

"The men are all..." I motioned to myself and Bobby. "Similar body types—height, weight, fitness. Whoever picked up the pizzas or answered the door for a delivery most likely would've been quiet, unassuming. Trying to avoid gaining any unwanted attention. They would want to stay as unmemorable as possible, and most of the time, whether you realize it or not, you pick up on things like that. Do you remember anyone like that?"

"You know," he said, reaching up to rub his jaw, "there is one man... He's come in a few times in the last month, and I seem to recall that aside from giving us his order, I don't believe he ever said another word."

"Do you have a security camera in your store?"

Fiore nodded. "We've had some problems with robberies and some kids stealing from the register, so we have one watching the front door and another at the front counter. We keep DVDs for a week, so your man should be on there."

This was moving too slow for me. I wanted to just reach over, put my hand around his throat, and demand that he give me the information I needed, but the last thing I wanted was to scare him off and make him call in the Philly PD. All that would do is slow me down. So I took a deep breath and asked, "Would you mind going to your restaurant with us and seeing if you can find the right video and any delivery receipts?"

He nodded once more. "I'll see you out and then get dressed. You can follow me over there."

"Thank you," I said, moving quickly back to the door. The faster we got out of there, the faster I'd find Stephanie.

~*~OoMH~*~

Twenty minutes later, I followed Nicolas Fiore through the front door of Fiore Pizza. It was a small, yet comfortable local pizza joint. The neighborhood was the lower end of middle class, but from my knowledge of Philadelphia, I knew that one of the roughest areas in terms of drugs wasn't far from where we were currently. If the kidnappers routinely ate from Fiore Pizza, there was a good chance they were holding Stephanie somewhere close.

When we walked into the office in the back, a younger version of Nicolas stood and put out his hand. "Luca Fiore. My father called me in because I'm the manager, so I'm here all day, every day."

I shook his hand, nodding. "Carlos Manoso."

"I live just around the corner, so I came in as soon as he called. I think I've found your man."

Luca sat back in front of the screen, clicked a button, and we watched as a man that could've been a cousin to Manny, back in Trenton, came into the restaurant. He had a baseball cap pulled down low on his head.

"Here's a better shot of him," Luca continued, clicking another file.

The camera at the counter was positioned well enough that I could see his face, although it still wasn't completely clear.

Clicking another file, Luca said, "Here's a shot of the van."

Through the window, I could just see the black van parked in one of the spots to the right of the door.

"Can I get a copy of those to send off to my guy in Trenton? He can clean up the one of the face so we can figure out who he is."

Luca nodded. "I figured you'd want one, so I spliced it out already. If you give me an e-mail address, I'll send it for you."

I rattled off the public address we gave to our clients, and Luca typed it in, hitting send moments later.

"I also found the delivery address I believe is the one you're looking for," Luca said, picking up a piece of paper. "We've delivered four large pies there at least twice a week for the last month. In fact, last week, we were down two drivers, so I had to make some deliveries myself, and I took an order to this one then. That van," he said, motioning to the computer, where the image of the van was still front and center, "was parked in front of the apartment building."

_Gotcha,_ I thought, feeling my hands ball up into fists at the thought of finally getting somewhere.

_Hold on, Babe. I'm coming for you._

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N #2: Ahh, so he DID catch Steph's clues...and they know where she is! Woohoo!_

_I love Luca. This isn't the last you'll hear from him this story, so I hope you liked him, too. :) Leave me a review & let me know!_

_More on Sunday/Monday! Mwah! – Jen_


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: First, before this extra long A/N, I want to say thank you for all the great reviews. I love you guys! I'm glad most of you like and already trust Luca. I promise you'll hear more from him now. :)_

_Now that FFn is allowing "guest" reviews, it opens the door to reviews that need or deserve responses without allowing us to respond, simply because the person doesn't have the balls to sign their name. (Yes, I know not all guest reviews are about lacking the balls. I'm fine if you review as a guest if you don't wanna log in, etc. But it's the people who write hateful, bitter, or stupid crap that I thnk should man up and sign in so writers can at least attempt to answer peacefully. Since one person didn't, I have to address it publicly, and because of that, my response is...slightly more than bitter and angry. ;)_

_For my "guest" reviewer on FFn. First, I use commas like commas are supposed to be used. Being a line editor for an online publisher means I have to know my stuff, and commas are something I know very well. So thank you for the "advice," but I will continue to use them how I use them. As for using too many 'ds... I'm not even sure what you mean with that._

_Now, about this being almost a copy-and-paste of another FF story written by a different author at the moment, I can assure you, it isn't. I've had this written for weeks now. The idea was my own. The words are my own. If the story is similar to one from someone else, it's just coincidence. Either that, or they are copying from me. Since you didn't bother to put the story or author in your "review," I can't verify which of those two options it is._

_Finally, about Steph's hint not being very clear, there's more of an explanation in this chapter. So if you'd bothered to wait, you'd have seen that. Basically, if you'd had the balls to sign in and review this, I could've explained everything to you, but you didn't._

_And telling me I should've re-read my chapter before I posted? There was nothing off about the chapter that I'd have caught. I had three pre-readers, and I read over it twice myself. So...screw you. Don't like it? Don't read. I'm certainly not forcing you._

_As for everyone else, thank you so much for your kind words. I do love hearing your thoughts & opinions! :) More from Ranger now, so let's get to it!_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 7**

**Ranger's POV**

Once Luca Fiore had finished showing us the videos and still shots from the security cameras and I'd sent them off to Hector, I turned back to Luca and his father, Nicolas. "Do you mind if we sort out a plan from here?" I wanted to be inside, away from prying eyes, should any of the kidnappers drive by. To that end, we'd parked around back so our SUVs weren't noticeable from the street.

"No, not at all," Nicolas said, looking to Luca. "I'm going to head home, if you've got this. You saw more than I did."

Luca nodded, so Nicolas turned back to me.

"Good luck on getting your Stephanie back," he said, holding his hand out.

"Thank you," I replied, shaking his hand firmly. "Thank you for getting us here quickly and for opening your business to help us."

Nicolas nodded at the other men and then left, locking the door behind him.

"Tell me everything you can about the place," I commanded Luca gently, crossing my arms as I prepared to commit every detail to memory. My men crowded around, all wanting every bit of information we could get before going in to get Stephanie.

"There's not a lot of cover on approach," Luca began. "If it were night, it might be a different story, but during the daylight hours, big SUVs like the ones you pulled up in will stick out. There are enough buildings and landscape surrounding the one you'll be looking at to provide cover should you choose to go in on foot. That would be my suggestion."

I looked at him shrewdly. "Military?"

He smirked. "Former Navy Seal," he answered. "Injured overseas—busted up my knee—and was honorably discharged two years ago, so I moved home to help out with the family business." He gestured around the restaurant.

Nodding once, I waited for him to continue.

"As for the building itself," Luca said, rubbing his chin in thought, "I've only been in once, so keep that in mind. There's a front entrance—wood door, but not solid, and the lock is busted. Residents are supposed to have keys so it can stay locked, but that neighborhood..." He shook his head. "Whenever they ordered for delivery, we were simply told to come right up."

"Fourth floor?" I interrupted.

Luca raised an eyebrow.

"When I spoke to Stephanie, she got in a clue about that in her message to me." I explained about Jackson kidnapping her and holding her on the fourth floor of a run-down apartment building on Stark Street. She'd been kept in a room with almost nothing in it, no access to freedom or weapons, and she'd been all alone in the room.

"Smart girl," he said, his face taking on a look of admiration.

"That's 'cause Bomber rocks," Santos said with a grin.

"Bomber?" Luca questioned.

Tank shook his head. "Long story."

Shrugging, Luca continued, "There are stairs straight ahead when you enter the building, with two apartments on the right and one on the left past the stairs. There's a door to the basement—I'm guessing it's a storage room, although most of the letters on the sign have been scratched off or something—before the stairs."

I could almost see the core team's minds racing, and I was sure we were all thinking along the same lines: the basement could be a good thing to remember if we needed it.

"There are fire escapes on both sides of the building, so every apartment has access to one. Most of the windows have bars, but they looked old, so who knows how secure they are." He shrugged. "There's also a back door, straight back through the lobby"—he used finger quotes around lobby, which I took to mean there wasn't much of an actual lobby at all—"beside the stairs."

"What'd you see in the actual apartment itself?" Tank asked, rubbing a hand over his bald head—his nervous gesture.

Luca shrugged. "Not a lot, unfortunately. Big guy from the video answered the door, blocking most of my view. The door opens into a living area, and I think I saw a kitchen off to the right and a hall ahead and slightly left of the door."

After giving all the information a moment to sink in with everyone, I asked, "Anything else?"

Thinking a moment, Luca shook his head. "I think that's pretty much all I can tell you, except it's a bad neighborhood. One of the worst in terms of drugs in the entire city. Not much of a police presence. So keep your heads down and eyes up."

"Hooah," Ram, our resident Navy Seal, grunted, grinning when Luca echoed him.

We all shook hands and thanked Luca again for his help before he let us out the back door with a final wish of good luck, a paper with the address and apartment number, and a card with his number on it in case we needed his help. I slid it into my pocket, not for help with rescuing Stephanie, but for future reference. He was observant, ex-military, and seemed like a stand-up guy—a great fit for a possible place at RangeMan.

As we gathered around the SUVs, I started handing out orders. "We'll park a couple of blocks away, around the corner, and approach on foot from different sides. Tank and Santos, once you park, your teams will come at it from the north. My team'll come at it from the south. Zero, take the north fire escape. Ram, the south. Cal, you're on the back. Find cover and be ready in case anyone gets by us. Zip, you're on front. Same thing. All of you need to stay out of sight of the windows from the building and just be ready. Everyone else, with me.

"When we get to the apartment, the four of you," I instructed the remaining men, "take the front room and kitchen. I'll find Stephanie." I looked at each of them, itching to get moving. "Any questions?"

Eight heads shook once, blank faces in place.

"Load up. There are earpieces and mics in the vehicles, so grab one. Phones off." These were things my men knew, but with Morelli with us and tensions running high, I wasn't willing to chance anything getting lost in the shuffle.

Less than thirty seconds later, we were off.

~*~OoMH~*~

It took less than five minutes to get to the apartment where we believed they were holding Stephanie and then find places to park.

"We're in position," I said quietly into my throat mic as Bobby, Morelli, and I stepped out of the SUV.

Tank and Lester echoed me.

"Go," I ordered. I took off, Morelli and Bobby right behind me, staying against the buildings and behind cover as much as possible. Our guns were out, down at our sides, as we hurried to the last corner that would take us to the apartment building we wanted.

I poked my head around and whipped back just as fast. "Hold position," I barked quietly. "Man outside the front door. Gotta be one of the guys from the roof. Right size, looks a little out of place in the neighborhood."

"Boss," Cal broke in.

"Go ahead."

"I'm already in position. If I come around to the front, I can be on him with a gun before he notices."

Nodding to myself, I said, "Go."

I waited fifteen seconds, and when I heard Cal hiss for the guy to freeze, I said into the mic, "Everyone go."

The three of us slid around the corner at a fast pace at the same time the others came around the other end of the block. By the time we met at the building, Cal had his gun at the man's temple. The guy looked back and forth at all of us, his eyes wide with fear.

"Make a sound, and I put a bullet through your skull," I said calmly.

When he nodded, I slid my gun into the waist of my cargos at my back and grabbed his arms. The handcuffs were on him before he could blink. As the rest of us headed inside, Cal, Zip, Zero, and Ram moved to their assigned positions.

Luca had been right about not only the front door, but the inside door to the basement. The letters on the door were meant to spell out "Storage Room," although the first three letters of the first word were missing, as well as the last three of the second, leaving it "rage R."

It was unlocked, so when Santos opened it and moved down the steps, I shoved the kidnapper in and followed him down, with the rest of the guys shuffling in behind me. I heard the door click shut in the quiet of the dim room, lit only by a single bare bulb in the center of the crowded basement. There were a handful of locked cages on one end, several work tables and a few chairs, and lots of shelves, all full of boxes and old junk. Most of it looked like it had been gone through more than once. The entire basement was dank and smelled like mildew.

I did a quick pat down, pulling a phone from his pocket, a gun from the small of his back, and a knife from his ankle.

Tank grabbed a chair and dropped it between the kidnapper and one of the work tables. "Sit," he ordered, his tone deadly.

The guy immediately dropped into the seat, and Tank took the opportunity to zip-tie his ankles to the legs of the chair. Then he used another pair of zip-ties and secured the guy's arms behind him to the sturdy wooden leg of the table.

Without warning, I swung my fist into the guy's stomach, making him retch and double over as much as he was able in the position he was in.

Once he'd quit retching, I asked, "Is Stephanie upstairs?"

When he sat up and glared at me, I hit him again, a right hook to his jaw, which snapped his head and made him curse.

"I'm gonna ask one more time," I said, pulling out my gun, "and if I don't like the answer, I'll put a bullet through your knee."

"Fuck," he hissed. "Yeah, man, she's upstairs."

"Why did your boss take her?"

At first, he glared at me, but when I cocked the gun in my hand, he must have decided it wasn't worth dying for. "He wanted you distracted."

I waited, not saying anything.

After a moment, he continued. "He wants some information stored in one of the buildings you run security for in Trenton. He figured if you were all busy trying to find the bitch—"

His head snapped to the side as I backhanded him. "Watch your language," I growled.

When he looked back up at me, his nose and lip were bleeding. "If you were busy trying to find the woman, then you'd be too distracted and you'd pull in your best guys to help find her, leaving the weaker men on security."

Breathing in through my nose, I worked through what building he might've meant. Only one came to mind.

"Call Hector," I said without taking my eyes off the man in front of me. "Tell him to take some men out to Fulcrum. There's going to be a team of..." My voice trailed off and I raised an eyebrow.

"Four," the man in the chair muttered angrily.

"A team of four somewhere close, to watch the activity of the security on the building. Find them and take them back to RangeMan."

I heard Santos in the background, already speaking quietly, as I raised an eyebrow.

"How many are upstairs?" When he didn't answer, I brought the butt of the gun down on his knee, not hard enough to shatter the knee cap, but hard enough to make him cry out. "How many?" I repeated.

"Fuck, okay! Four," he finally answered.

"Is that everyone?"

He nodded once.

"Anything we need to know about the apartment?"

The guy growled, shaking his head. "They'll kill you—and the woman."

My grin was deadly. "Let 'em try."

I gave Tank a nod, and he stepped up, grabbed the roll of duct tape he'd swiped from the SUV and hooked to his belt, and taped the guy's mouth shut.

Leaning down so I was speaking directly to his ear, I said, "Make a sound, and I'll come back and shut you up permanently."

He nodded once, looking resigned.

"Let's roll," I said to the room.

We exited the basement almost as one, shutting the door with barely a click behind us, and then moved quietly up the stairs. When we got to the fourth floor, an old woman poked her head out her apartment door. I held my finger to my lips and motioned for her to go back inside. With wide eyes, she complied as we moved down to the apartment Luca Fiore had told us was the correct one.

Without a word, I held up two fingers, pointing to Tank and Morelli and then left of the door, before repeating with Bobby and Santos to the right. Once everyone was guns up and ready, I steadied myself and then reared up and kicked the door, putting a boot print right beside the lock. With a loud crash, the door flew open, bouncing hard against the wall inside the apartment.

It took only a second for Tank to scoot around me, followed by Bobby, then Morelli and Santos, and they were already shouting for the men inside to get down on the ground as I ignored them all and went to find Stephanie.

Coming up on the first doorway, I drew in a breath and then whirled around, freezing in place when I saw Stephanie...and the man with a knife to her throat.

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N #2: Eek! I know, I know. I cliffied it hard. I'm sorry! (Well, I'm not. ;) It really just worked out best there, and this chapter was already long enough. LOL)_

_So Luca's had some military experience—a Navy SEAL at that—so that's how he knew his stuff._

_I hope you enjoyed the first bit of the action. The rest will come next chapter. :)_

_Please, leave me a note and let me know what you thought!_

_More on Wednesday/Thursday! Mwah! – Jen_


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Thank you for all the sweet words. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it!_

_To Tark, who reviewed without signing in: Thank you! :) Like I said, I certainly don't have a problem with people reviewing without signing in, even if they don't put their name on it like you did. It's the ones who do it deliberately in order to leave snarky, rude, or cutting remarks, not ones who do it for reasons like you do. So no worries! :)_

_Now, on with the chapter! :)_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 8**

**Stephanie's POV**

I was so tired. I hadn't been able to sleep at all, really. Every time I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, I would jerk awake before I could settle in to sleep. Fear of what was going to happen was keeping me from my normal M.O. of being able to sleep anywhere at any time. I was going crazy, locked in the quiet room by myself. I didn't do well by myself when it was forced on me—as Ranger well knew from the few times he'd tried to put me in a safe house or keep me locked in RangeMan for my own safety.

I needed to see other people, to talk to them, if only for a short while. And maybe I could con someone into talking about why they were holding me, maybe even get them to give me a better clue as to where we were, so I could give Ranger a hint if they allowed me to talk to him again.

Moving to the door, I pounded on it a few times with my fist before calling out, "Hey! Can anyone hear me? The least you can do is feed me if you're gonna keep me locked in here, damn you. Donuts would be a good breakfast. Do you have a Tasty Pastry here?"

I thought we were in Philly, but even though I'd lived close my entire life, I didn't visit very often. I thought there were some here, but I wasn't sure.

When no one came, I pounded again at the door. "C'mon, guys. I'm hungry!"

I really wasn't hungry—I was too scared to eat—but it was as good of an excuse as any.

Finally giving up, I swiped at the tears gathering in my eyes and moved back to the mattress, falling back and pulling my knees to my chest. Wrapping my arms around my legs, I pressed my cheek to my knees as I willed myself to not cry. Tears weren't going to do me any good, and I didn't want to show the assholes in the other room any weakness. I was tired of being kidnapped, and this time, I was going to stay strong.

A few minutes later, the locks on the door clicked, and I looked up just as the door swung open and Bob stepped into the room. He didn't have a white pastry bag, but the telltale red and yellow design on the bag he did have made my stomach growl for the first time since dinner the previous night in Ranger's apartment. He'd brought McDonald's.

When I scrambled to my feet, Bob handed me the bag and a bottled water, shaking his head. "You're certainly a determined one, aren't you, Ms. Plum?"

I shrugged, shooting him a—falsely—pleasant smile. When he turned to leave, I reached out and grabbed his arm. He scared the snot outta me, but I didn't want to be left alone again.

He raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly down at my hand on his arm.

"Why did you take me?" I challenged, not backing down from his stare, although I removed my hand now that I had his attention. When he didn't reply, I asked, "What do you want?" After still getting no reaction, I decided to take a chance. "Why bring me all the way to Philadelphia?"

At that, I saw a quick glimmer of something in his eyes, but he shuttered it away again before speaking. "Eat your breakfast, Ms. Plum. Viper so generously gave up one of his McMuffins since you said you were hungry. He'll be very disappointed if it goes to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, there was a loud crash from elsewhere in the apartment, sounding a lot like the doors in our house growing up when I was angry at my mother and I would storm off and slam... My thought trailed off as I realized what I'd heard.

"Ran—!" I started to yell, but Bob was suddenly behind me, an arm across my chest, holding me to him.

"Make a sound, and..." he threatened, and that's when I felt his knife at my throat.

I could hear shouts from the other room—Tank's booming voice over everything, but there were several others yelling things like, "Drop it!" and "Down on the ground!"—but my attention was focused on the doorway, where out of nowhere, Ranger appeared, looking as dark and intense as I'd ever seen him.

He kept his gun pointed in our direction even as his eyes found me. "Are you okay, Babe?" he asked, his voice soft, although I could hear the steel behind it.

When I nodded, I winced as the knife pricked my skin. I sucked in a deep breath, my eyes wide.

"Drop the knife," Ranger ordered Bob, finally looking away from me.

Bob chuckled. "I don't think so," he sneered. "Here's what's gonna happen, Mr. Manoso. You and your men are gonna let me walk out of here with Ms. Plum. You know why?" He waited a moment, but Ranger's expression didn't change. When he got no response, he continued. "You're going to let us walk out of here, because if you don't, I'll press just a little harder—" with a gentle push, the knife pressed into my skin, making me whimper "—and poor little Ms. Plum, who's been so brave up till now, will do a hell of a lot more bleeding than she already is."

I could see Ranger warring with himself on what to do. I knew I was blocking any shot he had of the man—Bob was making certain of that by using me as a shield—but I also knew that he'd already surrendered his weapon once, and I'd been taken as a result. I knew he wouldn't want to do it a second time. An idea suddenly popped into my head, something I'd seen once in a movie. Catching Ranger's eye, I started flicking my glance, keeping my head still so as not to give anything away to Bob, down to the floor and back up. I did that several times, waiting until I was sure he knew what I had planned.

Gritting my teeth, I closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them, I mouthed, "_I love you,_" and then went limp.

I felt pain when the knife slid over my skin, and I closed my eyes, immediately hearing three shots as I hit the floor.

There was a thud, which I could only guess was Bob's body, since I had my eyes squeezed tightly closed, and then I was wrapped up in Ranger's strong arms, the warm scent of Bvlgari and what was uniquely Ranger wafting over me.

"Babe," he breathed, cradling me against his chest for a moment before pulling back and cupping my face so he could look into my eyes. "Are you okay?"

Tears blurred my vision. "I'm okay. They didn't hurt me," I said, but I winced when I shook my head.

"Brown!" Ranger called. Looking back at me, he tilted my head gently, and I could see his eyes darken. "Looks like he nicked you with the knife, Babe. I don't think it's bad enough for stitches."

I nodded my head as much as his hand on my chin would allow. "Bob?"

Ranger's eyebrow shot up.

Shrugging, I said, "I know it's not his real name. That's what he told me to call him."

"He's gone, Cupcake."

I gasped. "Joe?" I said, finally looking away from Ranger to see Joe standing a few feet from us.

"How ya' doin', Steph?"

"Peachy," I snarked, smiling when he rolled his eyes and grinned. Turning my focus back to Ranger, I asked, "Are you gonna be in trouble?"

He shook his head. "He had a knife to your throat, Babe. He'd just threatened to..." His voice trailed off, and he shook his head again. "Don't worry about me."

I trusted him to tell me the truth, so I closed my eyes and nodded slightly, letting him know I understood.

"Hey, Bomber," Bobby suddenly spoke from beside us. "How ya' doin'?"

"I'm fine, Bobby. Just a Band-Aid," I said, trying to make a joke to keep the shakes away, since I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my system already waning.

He chuckled. "Ranger, man, let me have her. I'll take her to the other room and look at her neck while you do what you need to do."

Ranger looked at me for a long moment. "You gonna be okay with Bobby, Babe?" When I nodded, he released me into Bobby's care with a warning glance at the medic.

"I'll keep her safe," Bobby assured him before ushering me out the bedroom door and down the hall to the bathroom. As he pulled me into the room, he said, "Morelli being here will help when the police get here, and he, Tank, and I were in the hall right outside the bedroom door when 'Bob' made his threat. It was a good shoot, Stephanie. He'll be fine."

"'Kay," I whispered, swallowing as I started to shake.

"Let's get you cleaned up and take a look. Stay strong for a little longer, Steph, okay?"

I nodded and then tilted my head back so Bobby could do his job.

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N #2: So there. They have Steph back—and without too much harm. :) I simply had to get her POV on the rescue. Wouldn't you wanna be the one to suddenly see Ranger step into the doorway? Whew! Sexy relief! *laugh*_

_There are twelve chapters total to this story, so just a few more before it's over. Leave me a note and let me know what you thought of the rescue, please! Mwah! – Jen_


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N #1: Thank you for all the sweet words! I'm glad you guys are still enjoying this! :)_

_Some of you were still questioning why Stephanie was taken. In case you forgot, in chapter 7, when the guys hauled the guy from outside the apartment building down into the basement, he told them his boss wanted Ranger/RangeMan distracted so they could more easily get into a building RM did the security for. You will find out a few more details, like what they were after, in a couple of chapters, so... ;)_

_Now, read on to see if Ranger gets into trouble for shooting Bob and whether or not the guys in Trenton were able to get the rest of the bad guys._

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 9**

**Ranger's POV**

When Bobby walked Stephanie to the bathroom to look at the scratch on her neck, I glared down at the body on the floor in front of me for a moment before turning and leaving the room. In the living room, my blank face slid into place as I looked around. Tank was standing over the three men seated on the floor just outside the kitchen. Their hands were zip-tied behind their backs, their legs crossed at the ankles with zip-ties holding them together. One man had blood trickling out from a cut over his eye, while another had a bloody mouth and was glaring at me.

I raised an eyebrow at Tank, who said, "They're clean." He nodded once at the floor in the living room, where an assortment of weapons were spread out in three groups. "Told 'em if they moved or spoke, I'd kick their teeth in." Smirking, he shrugged. "Contestant number three decided to challenge that statement."

Nodding, I turned to the door when the men who'd been outside came in through the open door of the apartment. Cal had the man from the basement limping along beside him, and at the tilt of my head, he pushed him down beside the others, yanking his legs out and putting a new zip-tie around his ankles. Ram continued past us all down the hall, carrying the small black nylon duffel bag Bobby—who must have called him—used to carry around a handful of medical supplies.

I started to turn and follow, but stopped when my phone rang. I snatched it off my belt, barking out, "Talk."

"Boss, we got 'em all," Hector said in his accented English. "Just as the man there explained, we found four watching the building. They're in holding, waiting to be turned over to TPD." After a pause, he asked, "How's Stephanie?"

"Shaken, but okay. Bobby's checking her over now."

"And the boss?"

"Down," I said shortly, knowing he'd understand.

"Good." Apparently satisfied, he hung up.

Looking around as I put my phone back on my belt, I realized Santos and Morelli weren't in sight. Raising an eyebrow at Tank, I asked him without words to explain.

"Waiting outside for Philly PD."

I nodded just as Bobby led a visibly shaking Stephanie into the living room. With one look, he told me she would be fine, even with the small Band-Aid on her throat.

"Babe," I murmured as I reached for her.

She smiled wearily at me, looking ready to drop.

I led her to the couch and sank down, pulling her to my lap and holding her tight. Almost immediately, she let out a sigh, and before I could say anything more, her eyes drooped and then closed as her head fell lax against my shoulder.

When I looked up at Bobby, he smiled.

"She's okay. Just exhausted. She's been running on adrenaline since she was taken, and sleeping is her body's way of coping, now that she knows she's safe," he explained, looking pointedly at me.

I squeezed her, feeling relief at his explanation, and nodded once to show I'd understood.

As I adjusted her in my lap, I realized my hand fit easily around her wrist, she was so fine boned—fragile and delicate. She played tough, but she didn't fool me. I found my ire rising as I thought about how they should've taken me instead. Picked on somebody their own size, chicken-hearted bastards.

Burying my face in her hair and breathing deep to regain control of my emotions, her scent swept over me, and even with the sweat of panic and fear coming from her, as well as the dirty, mildewy odor permeating the entire old apartment building, Stephanie still smelled like my Babe—a mix of the Bvlgari she'd swiped from my apartment and the fruity-scented lotion she used to keep her skin so soft.

When I'd first seen her being held at knife point, I'd had to lock down my emotions, for fear that I'd do something rash and get Stephanie killed. It was something I was used to doing on missions...something I was good at—maybe too good, as it had kept me from admitting my feelings for Stephanie long before now. Still, when she'd mouthed her declaration of love, it had taken every bit of control I had in order to not say it back to her. Knowing she'd chosen to say that to me, when it was almost as hard for her to express her feelings as it was for me and when she knew they could have very well been her last words... I squeezed her a little tighter and swallowed hard, unable to express even to myself how much it had meant.

Five minutes later, Santos and Morelli stepped through the door, followed by four uniformed officers and two plain clothes, their detective shields clipped to their belts. Santos gave me a nod and continued past me down the hall, followed by one of the detectives and Tank. The other detective stepped up to me at Morelli's side.

"Ranger, this is Detective Peters."

I nodded once. "Carlos Manoso," I said by way of introduction.

The detective looked at Stephanie. "She okay?"

"My medic said she's fine. Got scraped by the knife the guy had at her throat, but aside from that, just exhausted and a little shocky."

"Tell me what happened, from the beginning," he ordered, pulling out a notepad and pen.

Starting back from the first sound I'd heard on the RangeMan roof, I told him in detail everything from the previous nearly twelve hours.

"The team in Trenton?"

"In holding at RangeMan," I explained. "Waiting to be taken to Trenton PD."

The second detective came back out to the living room, followed by Santos.

Detective Peters motioned to the man and said, "My partner, Detective Sean Murphy."

The red-haired man nodded in greeting and glanced down at his notebook. "According to the driver's license, the guy in there is Jonathan Gray, with an address just outside New York City. Do you know him?"

I shook my head. "I didn't recognize him, and the name isn't familiar. I can look through our files back at the office, but I don't think RangeMan's had any dealings with him before this."

The detectives nodded and stepped away, speaking quietly to one another.

Santos squatted down beside me, reaching up to brush a curl back from Stephanie's face. "How is she?" he asked softly. He smiled when I told him what Bobby had said. "She'll be fine. She's tough."

I nodded once, agreeing wholeheartedly.

When the detectives stepped back to us, Lester stood, moving back beside Tank and Bobby, who'd appeared near the ratty sofa.

"From speaking with Detective Morelli and Mr. LaMontagne," Detective Murphy said, looking over at Tank, "it appears to be a justified shoot. Ms. Plum's life was being threatened, and you only took action when Gray wouldn't drop the knife. We aren't happy you came up here and did all this without notifying PPD, but we know RangeMan's reputation, and our captain said you're free to go. We know where to find you should we need to speak with you again."

"We do need Ms. Plum's statement," Detective Peters said quickly. "If you could wake her, we'll—"

"No," I growled softly. "I'll bring her back first thing Monday morning, after she's had a chance to rest and recover, but I'm not waking her now. She's exhausted and in shock, and Mr. Brown can tell you that she needs to rest."

The detectives opened their mouths to argue, but with another glare from me, they quickly nodded and backpedaled.

"Yes, of course," Peters said. "First thing Monday would be fine."

"Feel free to call RangeMan if you need something from us before then," Tank said smoothly, passing them each one of the general RangeMan business cards.

Without waiting to hear their response, I stood, shifting Stephanie lightly in my arms before stepping past everyone on my way to the door. Aside from Santos and Ram, who moved out before us, the others trailed after.

We were quiet as we moved down the three flights of stairs to the ground floor. When we got out front, Ram was just pulling up to the curb. He left the SUV idling and hopped out to open the back door.

Tank stepped up beside me. "Give her to me," he said shortly when I glanced from Stephanie to the back seat.

I carefully handed her over and climbed in, looking back as she stirred, calling out my name in confusion and fear.

"Hush, Bomber. You're safe. Ranger's right here." Tank's deep voice seemed to soothe her, and she opened her eyes, blearily looking around.

"I'm here, Stephanie," I said softly, helping her into the SUV as Tank reached in and set her on the seat. When she frowned and looked around again in confusion, I reached over and took her hand, tugging gently. I needed to hold her more. I wasn't ready to let her go. My heart and nerves still weren't settled yet. I didn't say any of that, simply saying instead, "C'mere, Babe," as I pulled her onto my lap.

She started to protest about needing to be buckled in, but I shook my head. "I'll keep you safe."

Nodding once, she settled against me, resting her head on my shoulder. Just before her breathing evened out again, she mumbled, "I knew you'd find me, Ranger. Love you."

My heart squeezed once, and I had to blink to hold back tears that threatened as I finally allowed myself to relax once more when Tank and Bobby slid into the front of the SUV. Stephanie was asleep before I could say it back.

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N #2: Many of you asked what Ranger had felt when Stephanie murmured her I love you. Now you know. And yet again, she was able to say it without him being able to reciprocate. I promise you, his turn is coming._

_So you can breathe deeply. Ranger's not in trouble. Did you really think I'd do that to them when they've already been through so much? Pffft. ;)_

_More next chapter... Stephanie has to finally process what happened. Also, will she be comfortable at RangeMan, even though that's where she was taken from?_

_Please, leave me a note and let me know what you thought! I love writing from Ranger's POV. He's such a fun character to play with. I hope you enjoyed it!_

_Okay, I'll see you Thursday! Mwah! – Jen_


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N #1: I'm so glad you enjoyed Ranger's POV last chapter. Again, I love writing for him. He's so much fun to play with, mostly because he's a pretty blank canvas. heh We don't have much more than our imaginations to go on, since JE hasn't expanded him much at all in the books. So it's fun to shape and mold him just how we want to._

_More of his POV this chapter, so enjoy! :)_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 10**

**Ranger's POV**

I held Stephanie the entire way back home. Not once did I enter my "zone," as Steph liked to call it. I was unable to stop touching her: my fingers ran gently through her curls, my hand smoothed up and down her arm, and my lips pressed to her forehead—it was a cycle that lasted the full forty minute drive. Neither of the men in front spoke, other than to check on Stephanie a few times. Otherwise, it was completely silent in the SUV.

When we pulled into the RangeMan garage and Tank turned off the engine, Stephanie stirred, raising her head from my shoulder. "Where are we?" she mumbled before looking around. "Oh..."

Tank and Bobby quietly got out of the SUV, leaving us on our own in the silence.

Feeling uncharacteristically unsure, I asked, "Is this okay, Babe?" I wasn't sure if she'd be okay with being here after... "I can take you home if—"

She shook her head quickly. "No, it's fine. Can we go up to seven?" She dipped her head and sniffed, pulling back and grimacing. "I really need a shower."

I chuckled, feeling it vibrate through my chest and into her, which made her grin. "Yeah, Babe. I need one, too."

Nodding, she reached for the door handle, but I beat her to it, and when the door was open, I climbed out, keeping her in my arms. Tank closed the door behind me, beeping the lock as Steph started to struggle in my arms.

"Ranger, I can walk," she huffed when I refused to let her down. She looked up at me and said, "Please, let me walk."

It was then I realized that she seemed to be struggling for control, and I nodded, immediately setting her on her feet. I knew the need to be the one in charge of your body after you'd had that control taken away.

Holding out my hand, I waited until she took it before I smiled and started toward the elevator.

Tank and Bobby moved to the stairwell door, and before Bobby could leave the garage, he looked back at us. "Call if you start to feel dizzy or you can't catch your breath. I can give you something for the anxiety if you need it."

Stephanie nodded, and the men disappeared into the stairwell just as the elevator door slid open. I guided her into the elevator with a hand on her lower back, clicking the key fob that would take us up to my apartment. Once the door closed, I pulled Stephanie back up against my chest, wrapping my arms gently around her, resting my cheek against her temple, and breathing in her scent once more.

Up on seven, I unlocked the apartment door and held it open for Stephanie. The moment she stepped inside, her shoulders dropped and she took a deep breath, holding it for a second before letting it out slowly, as if in relief.

"Are you hungry, Babe?" I asked, coming in behind her and shutting the door before dropping my keys in the dish on the entry table. "I can call Ella and have her bring up lunch for us after your shower."

She hummed. "Yeah, that would be good. Nothing heavy. I don't think my stomach could take it."

Nodding, I kissed her lips lightly and gave her a gentle shove. "Go shower, Babe."

"'Kay," she murmured, blinking up at me a few times before shaking her head and moving away.

I followed her, stopping in the kitchen when she continued on to my bedroom and bathroom. When I heard the bathroom door close, I braced my arms on the kitchen bar and hung my head, feeling almost weak in the knees. I hadn't had time to give in to my nerves and worry while she was missing. Everything in me had been about finding her before it was too late. Now that she was home, now that I knew she was safe, my stomach felt like it was turning inside out, the worry and fear I'd felt for almost twelve hours bubbling through me. I took a deep breath, repeating to myself that she was okay, that she was just in the other room and that no one could get to her here. I knew at some point, I'd have to deal with the fact that she'd been taken from my building, but for now, it was enough to have her here with me.

Drawing a deep breath in, I let it out, scrubbing a hand over my face before reaching for the intercom button. Two minutes later, our lunch request in to Ella, I headed for the bedroom, pulling my shirt off over my head as I went.

I sat on the edge of the bed in my cargos for nearly twenty minutes. I'd pulled off my boots when I got into the bedroom, intending to be ready when Steph got out of the shower. Ella had come and gone, and I knew lunch would be in the fridge or a low oven, keeping cool or warm, depending on what she'd made. I was starting to worry because Stephanie had been in the shower for a while, but after her ordeal, I knew she was probably just relishing the hot water and letting it clean off the filth—both real and imagined.

When I heard the first quiet sob a few minutes later, I was off the bed before I could take my next breath. Instead of busting in like my body was itching to do, I slowly opened the door, calling out quietly, "Babe?"

For a moment, there was nothing, and then Steph let out a larger sob, although muffled, like she was hiding behind her hand so I wouldn't hear.

I looked through the fog and saw her curled up on the floor of the shower, her knees drawn up and arms wrapped around them as the water beat down on her toes. She was shaking, her sobs muffled because her face was buried in her knees.

My heart felt like it was breaking for her, and I knew I couldn't stand by and let her cry. I popped the button on my cargos, eased the zipper down, and stepped out of the pants before moving into the shower with her.

The water was a little cool, so I turned the hot up before bending to pick her up. At my touch, she cried harder, and she immediately turned her head, burying her face in the crook of my neck and shoulder. I adjusted the water so it was hitting us farther up and then sat down on the little built-in bench, keeping her on my lap, intent on letting her cry as long as she needed to.

A few minutes later, Steph had finally calmed down enough that her tears were coming almost silently, and her shaking had dropped to the occasional shiver. When she spoke, it was so quiet that I almost didn't hear her.

"I d-don't kn-know why I'm c-crying," she stuttered softly.

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I spoke just as quietly. "It's still your body's let-down of all the stress, Babe. When I got to you in Philadelphia, your mind shut down, letting your body follow, which is why you were able to sleep like you did. Now that you're back in Trenton, it's all coming to a head, and instead of suppressing it, your body is finally releasing it. It's completely normal."

She nodded against me, but didn't say anything.

After a few more minutes, I asked, "Will you let me take care of you, Stephanie?" Then I threw in the magic word, knowing that even if she'd been about to protest, she wouldn't be able to resist. "Please, Babe..."

"Okay," she answered, pressing a soft kiss to the column of my throat.

I pulled her away, kissing her lips once before helping her stand. As she stepped forward, re-wetting her hair, I reached over and grabbed the shampoo, pouring a dollop into my palm. When she stepped back to me, I began working the shampoo into her long curls. Using the tips of my fingers, I massaged her scalp, working in gentle circles to massage away as much of the tension and pain from her head as I could. She sighed, and I took as that as my cue to move on. Once she was rinsed, I made quick work of the conditioner she'd gotten from Mr. Alexander, the one that was supposed to help curb the frizz in her naturally curly hair, and then grabbed the body wash from the little shelf as she rinsed the conditioner out.

Picking up the loofah, which was an odd combination of soft, yet scratchy, and began lathering it up. Once I had a good foam going, I started at Stephanie's shoulders, working the loofah in gentle circles over her skin. It wasn't sexual when I ran it between her breasts and down the slight curve of her belly. My hands didn't linger like they usually did when I smoothed it over her ass or around to the inside of her thighs. Down her legs to her feet, I worshiped her as she balanced on one foot, using a hand on the top of my bent head to hold herself upright.

When she was completely soaped up, I dropped the loofah back on the bench and guided her under the water. As she was rinsing, I grabbed the body wash and the wash cloth, cleaning myself much more quickly than I'd taken care of Stephanie.

Once free of soap, I stepped out and grabbed a towel, running it roughly over my hair before pulling it around my waist and tucking the end in to keep it in place. Then I pulled a second towel from the rack and offered my hand to Steph, who took it and stepped out onto the bath mat. I dried her quickly and then wrapped it around her before pulling off another towel and using it to get as much of the water from her curls as possible.

"Ella left lunch. Do you wanna get dressed and eat something?" I asked quietly, pulling her into my arms.

She shook her head. "I just want to sleep. Is that okay?"

Tilting her head up, I kissed her lips lightly and then nodded. "That's fine, Babe. Come on. I'll find you a T-shirt."

Nodding, she followed me from the bathroom. I moved to the dresser, where I reached in and pulled out one of the few pairs of boxers I owned, slipping them on before reaching back into another drawer for one of my old, soft T-shirts that Steph loved to steal and wear.

Unsure of myself once again, I handed her the T-shirt and then turned. "I'll be in the living room if you need me, Babe."

"Ranger?" I heard in her soft voice before I could reach the door.

Turning back, I raised an eyebrow.

"Could you...I mean, would you lie down with me?" she asked, biting her lip for a moment. "I-I think I would sleep better if—"

"Of course, Babe."

She nodded as I moved back to the bed, pulling the covers back and sliding in. I watched as she tossed the towels back into the bathroom and pulled the T-shirt over her head. When she'd climbed into the bed beside me, I reached over and turned off the light beside the bed, leaving the room dark, aside from what little light made it through the break in the black-out curtains.

I turned onto my side and reached out for her, situating her so her back was to my chest and her head was resting on my arm. Wrapping my other arm around her waist, I kept her anchored to me.

"Sleep, Babe," I crooned softly before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

It was only minutes before her breathing evened out, and only moments after that, my own eyes closed.

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N #2: The stress and worry and fear over the kidnapping finally caught up to her, and she broke down. I thought she definitely needed that moment of weakness. She'd been so strong the entire time, and now that she was home, she was able to let her guard down emotionally._

_So let me know what you think. Next chapter, I promise, you'll want to get to ASAP. ;)_

_I'll see you Monday! – Jen_


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N #1: Thank you for all the sweet words. I'm glad you guys have loved this story! :) Be sure to see my note at the bottom!_

~*~OoMH~*~

**Chapter 11**

**Stephanie's POV**

For a moment when I became aware, I was disoriented. The room was dark. It took me a second to realize it was dark because the curtains in the room were drawn, not because the windows were covered in black plastic. I was in Ranger's bed, and the warm weight across my stomach and pressed against my back was the man himself. He'd wrapped himself around me before I'd fallen asleep, and it seemed like neither of us had moved.

Before I could think about even stretching, he moved the hand on my stomach down and then back up under the T-shirt, stroking my skin softly, and pressed a kiss to my shoulder.

"Finally awake?" he said quietly, sounding amused.

Giving in to the need to move, I nodded even as I reached my arms above my head and pointed my toes to the end of the bed. Once my joints had popped and realigned, I turned over to face Ranger, who never moved his arm, except to press his hand against the warm skin of my back, urging me closer. I looped my arms around his neck.

"I miss the long hair," I mused, teasing the short hairs at the base of his neck. He'd been meeting with different government officials for a few months, ironing out details and whatever else he had to do after ending his contract with them, so he'd just kept his hair nearly buzzed since his last mission.

"Yeah?" At my nod, he smiled. The room was just light enough that I could see his features through the shadows.

"What time is it?" I asked, covering a yawn.

Ranger chuckled low and turned over, reaching for the bedside light. Once the room was bathed in the low light from the small lamp, he checked his cell phone before setting it on the table and turning back to me. "Just before four."

"How long have you been awake?" I knew we'd crashed around noon, but Ranger could've been awake for hours and not woken me.

He hummed, his fingers sweeping back and forth on the skin of my lower back, right above my ass. "About an hour. Bobby sent me a text to make sure we were okay."

I raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged.

"Concussion from the gun to my temple," he said with almost no inflection.

Reaching up, I traced the small bump on the side of his head. "Are you okay?" I asked quietly around the lump in my throat, suddenly replaying that moment in my head, when the guy had knocked him unconscious right in front of me.

Pulling himself up on his forearm, Ranger gazed down at me, his eyes dark. "I'm fine, Babe. Bobby said I've got a hard head."

I giggled, unable to help myself.

Ranger raised a single eyebrow, and I shrugged, unashamed.

After a moment, he moved his hand up to brush a curl away from my face and then tilted my chin up before tracing the spot on my throat from Bob's knife.

"I'm okay," I promised, reaching up to take his hand and put it back where it had been. "Just a scratch. Bobby just wanted the Band-Aid on there in case there was any more bleeding. I checked when I got ready for my shower, and there wasn't."

His eyes closed for a moment, and when he opened them, there was so much emotion there, it literally took my breath away. "I was so scared," he admitted in a whisper. "I was afraid I wasn't going to find you in time, and then when I stepped into that room..."

"Stop, Ranger," I said just as softly. "I'm right here. You found me, and I'm okay. That's the important thing."

"Did you mean it?"

It took me a second to switch topics, and when I realized what he'd meant, I swallowed, nodding. "I did. I've loved you for a long time. I admitted it to myself during the whole thing with Scrog." Looking down, I frowned. "I...I wasn't ready then. Joe was...safe. With him, I didn't have to fight my mother. I knew what I was getting into with him. And I loved him—in my own way," I added, feeling the irony. When Ranger started to speak, I shook my head and continued. "But it wasn't enough—for me or for Joe. That's why we ended it. He wanted the perfect 'Burg wife, and I was anything but. And I finally realized that I did love him, but I wasn't _in love_ with him." Taking a deep breath, I steeled my resolve and said in a rush, "I don't know if I'll ever want to get married, but the thought of settling down with Joe just...I couldn't ever get past the hives. When I think about a future with you, it feels right. I love you, Ranger, but maybe more than that, I'm _in lo_—"

The rest of my words were swallowed by his kiss as he leaned down and covered my lips with his. His hand at my back pulled me tight against him as our legs entwined, his strong thigh between mine, pressing against me just right. With nothing between us but his boxers, I could feel him hot and hard, and I felt my arousal spike. His lips and teeth and tongue were working magic on mine, nipping, caressing, and teasing. The familiar and comforting, yet arousing scent that I would always associate with Ranger surrounded me, warming me even further.

Pulling back suddenly, he left me gasping, my skin buzzing with heightened arousal.

"_Dios,_" he groaned, his hand moving down to cup the curve of my ass and hold me against his thigh. "Stephanie, I thought..." He swallowed and finally looked into my eyes, his expression earnest and so full of love. "When I woke up after you were taken, my first thought was that I was never going to get the chance to tell you how I feel. I've done my best to show you, but I was waiting until you were ready to tell you. When you were gone, I was afraid I'd waited too long." He took a shuddering breath. "I'm so in love with you, _mi amor._"

Unable to help myself, I reached between us and into his boxers, wrapping my fingers around his length and delighting in the hiss that escaped as he threw his head back.

"Babe," he groaned, thrusting into my fist once before tangling his fingers in my hair and drawing me in for another kiss.

As I stroked him from base to tip and back again, he angled my head and deepened the kiss. He mimicked my hand on him as he stroked my tongue with his.

Against his lips, I breathed, "Make love to me, Ranger."

No more words were exchanged as he expertly pulled my my shirt off. He dipped his head and wrapped his lips around one nipple as he cupped my other breast in his palm, teasing the nipple with his fingers and making it just as hard as the one in his mouth before switching. I needed more. I needed to feel him inside me, to be connected again in the most intimate way possible. In a fevered rush, I pushed at his boxers until he reached down and had them off within seconds.

He trailed his fingers back up my leg and around to cup me intimately, groaning against my breast when his fingers slipped through my folds. "Christ, Stephanie," he cursed, resting his forehead against my chest. "You're soaked, Babe."

"All for y-you," I stammered as he expertly slid two fingers inside me. "Always for you, Ranger."

When he moved up to kiss me harshly, his gaze was so hot, I nearly melted into the mattress. "Call me Carlos, Stephanie," he implored, moving over me.

Bracing himself on one hand, he used the other to guide himself to my entrance, and at my nod, he slid inside me until our hips were flush against one another.

Tears leaked from my eyes as the connection I'd been missing finally fell into place. I felt whole...complete...for the first time since we'd made love after DeChooch. Ranger began to slowly move as he dipped his head and peppered my face with kisses, catching the tears as they slid down my cheeks.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his thighs, arching into him as he crooned in Spanish. I didn't understand the words, but the meaning was clear. He loved me, and I was his.

When my arousal reached a fever pitch, Ranger was there, angling his hips just right. Everything inside me tightened, and when he slid two fingers roughly over my clit, rolling it between them, I flew over the edge of my orgasm, crying out his name.

With one last thrust, Ranger stilled, burying his face in my neck and shuddering as he came.

~*~OoMH~*~

Once we'd cleaned up—and gotten dirty again in the process—Ranger pulled me into the living room and dropped to the corner of the couch. When he tugged my hand, I slid down onto his lap, turning sideways so I could look at him while we talked.

Pulling out his cell phone, he handed it to me.

"What's this?" I asked, looking at him funny.

"A phone," he answered, deadpan.

"Hah. Mr. Funny Man."

He grinned, shaking his head. "When Bobby texted earlier, he suggested the guys bring up Pino's for dinner. He said to let him know when. If you want that, hit three on speed dial."

I nodded and quickly hit the button.

"Everything okay, boss?"

Grinning, I said, "Everything's fine, Bobby."

"Bomber! How ya doin'?"

"I'm good. Sleep helped," I told him.

He chuckled. "Yes, it usually does. So what's up, Steph?"

"Ranger said something about Pino's and company for dinner?"

"Be there in thirty." Then he hung up.

I rolled my eyes as I gave Ranger back his phone. "I need to find phone etiquette lessons for RangeMan," I grumbled, making Ranger laugh softly.

"Never happen, Babe," he said matter of factly.

Sighing dramatically, I nodded. "I know. But a girl can dream, can't she?"

"Oh, Babe... If that's what you're dreaming about, maybe I need to give you more inspiration..."

Twenty-five minutes later, I looked up, dazed, when a knock sounded at the apartment door. Laughing, I said, "Well, I'm certainly feeling inspired."

Ranger smiled his full two hundred watts my way, making my insides clench at how gorgeous he was.

The smell of a Pino's pie with everything wafted into the living room as Tank, Les, and Bobby came around the corner from the entryway. Tank was carrying three large pizza boxes, Les had a six-pack of Coke and a bag that I knew contained a salad for Ranger, and Bobby had his medical bag.

They called out greetings almost as one, setting the food and bag down on the large coffee table before coming to stand in front of Ranger and me.

Les was the one to reach down and pluck me out of Ranger's arms. "Beautiful!" he exclaimed, squeezing me tight. "Glad you're okay," he murmured into my ear before passing me off to Tank.

"Little girl, it's good to see you awake and looking...well." He raised an eyebrow at me. "Boss treating you okay?"

I laughed softly. "Thanks," I told him, not bothering to answer the teasing question.

"Mmhmm," he said, giving me a knowing look before nudging me toward Bobby.

"How ya feeling, Steph?" Bobby asked, tilting my head up with a finger on my chin so he could look at my neck.

Once he'd released me, I smiled. "I'm good, Bobby. It doesn't hurt, and the sleep helped a lot." My stomach chose that moment to let out a loud growl. "Now I'm just hungry," I said with a laugh.

"Get some pizza, then, while I take a look at Ranger," he instructed, gently shoving me toward the pizza.

I followed his instructions, getting a paper plate from the bag containing Ranger's salad and loading it with three pieces. Then I grabbed Ranger's food and the fork from the bag and waited as Bobby finished looking him over.

"No more dizziness or nausea?"

"I'm fine," Ranger argued, his blank face in place as Bobby probed the spot on his temple, which had gone down considerably in the last eight hours.

Seeming satisfied, Bobby nodded once and backed away.

I took the food and slid onto the couch beside Ranger, handing him his food and fork before pulling my feet up under me. Les held up a Coke and put it on the table in front me, and I nodded my thanks as I took my first bite of pizza.

"Babe," Ranger groaned.

Shrugging, I finished chewing and then swallowed the delicious pizza. "Sorry," I sang, grinning when the other guys looked pained and amused at the same time.

"So who was it?" I asked a few minutes later. I felt Ranger tense beside me, but I wanted—needed—to know. "Why'd they take me?"

I listened as Ranger explained that Bob was actually Jonathan Gray, and he and his team had kidnapped me to keep RangeMan occupied and why.

"So they wanted you busy so they could get into that...Fulcrum building...why?" I asked around another bite of pizza. "And you haven't had any dealings with him before?"

"No," Ranger answered, shaking his head. "Apparently, our reputation precedes us..." He smirked when Lester let out out a cackling laugh and nodded enthusiastically.

I grinned, finding it amusing that Les seemed so proud of that fact. "And the Fulcrum building?"

"A lot of the banks have their information stored there," Tank explained, polishing off his fourth piece before picking up a fifth. "From what we got out of one of his men, that's what they were after."

"And they thought taking me would help them accomplish that?" I shook my head, rolling my eyes.

"Babe, if I'd had to, I'd have pulled off every one of our regular employees to find you, and they counted on that." His eyes took on a hard glint. "What they didn't count on was that the contract workers I'd have called in for security would still have kept them out of the building."

Lester lightened things up again when he grinned and said, "Luckily, they didn't have to find that out. We're just that good."

I picked up my Coke and held it up, toasting him. "Thank God for that." Settling back on the couch, I asked the guys, "Did my panic button not go off? I thought I pressed it, but..."

"It didn't, Bomber," Tank said. "I had Hector check. He went through the log, and there was nothing to indicate that it went off and got turned off."

"Well, I pressed it through my cargos, so I may not have pressed it hard enough. I was trying to do it so they didn't see me." I shrugged. It had all worked out in the end, so I wasn't worried. "How'd they get on the roof? And why didn't we hear them before we did?"

Ranger grimaced and explained about Hawk and his unhappiness over being put on probation. "I was careless," he huffed, shaking his head when I scoffed. "I was, Babe. I thought since we were on my building, we were safe. I was so focused on you...on us...that I didn't pay attention to my instincts, and it nearly got you—"

"Stop, Carlos," I demanded, using his real name to get past his defenses. I set my empty plate on the table before turning to him. "Even you couldn't have predicted that one of your own men would turn on you and set you up." Looking around, I asked the room in general, "Is Hector working at securing the network so something like this can't happen again?"

Tank nodded. "He's already making changes so no one outside this room and a select other few men in the company have access to the camera system like Hawk did. It was secure to the outside before, but when he finishes, it will be just as secure from the inside, as well."

I nodded once, laying a hand on Ranger's thigh. "Sometimes, shit happens. You found me, I wasn't hurt, and a major flaw in the system has been found and is now being dealt with. That's a win in my book."

"But—"

Shaking my head, I cut off his argument. "But nothing. Unless you're prepared to back away from me or keep me locked inside this apartment, there's always the chance of something happening. Last time...in fact, the last two times, it's been my skips who've taken me. Before that, there was Scrog. Before _that,_ it was another of mine. So really, I've got you beat. I kept my cool, I'm getting the training to help stop this kind of thing from happening. But if you beat yourself up about this or let it affect our relationship, you're letting Bob win."

I sat back, looking around at the guys, who were looking at me with respect and amusement, nodding. When I looked back at Ranger, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"You're right," he said, opening his eyes and looking back at me, nodding once.

"Good. Just keep saying that, and we'll get along fine," I teased, grinning.

The guys all burst out laughing in deep belly laughs, while Ranger raised an eyebrow. I knew I'd pay for that comment, but I had a feeling Ranger's retribution would be...fun for both of us.

I wanted to know how they'd found me, but I decided I'd had enough of the heavy talk. Determined to change the subject, I said, "So...who's going to dinner with me tomorrow night at my parents' house?"

Much to my amusement, Tank, Bobby, and Lester looked away, finding something else in the room to stare at.

Ranger sighed an honest-to-goodness, 'Burg girl-worthy sigh, and said, "I suppose that would be my job from now on, huh?" At my laugh, he smiled and leaned over. He kissed me once and said against my lips, "Totally worth it, Babe."

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him...hard. He pulled me onto his lap as his tongue slid between my lips. We kissed until a throat clearing caught my attention, and I backed away, feeling my cheeks heat.

"That's our cue to leave," Les said, grinning. "Unless you want us to stay, Beautiful..."

"Santos," Ranger growled, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Got it, boss." Lester chuckled. "We'll just see ourselves out."

Ranger nodded, and I gasped, letting out a giggle as he stood and began carrying me out of the living room. I gave the guys a finger wave over his shoulder and then settled in.

The door to the apartment clicked shut just before Ranger pushed the bedroom door closed with his foot.

"Good. Now that we're alone," he said, raising an eyebrow as he set me on my feet, "lose the clothes, Babe."

_Yippee!_

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N #2: YAY! They finally said the ILYs while both fully awake and without a life-and-death threat hanging over their heads. :) AND there was a lemon! I figured it was time. *laugh*_

_Just to let you guys know...I'm trying out the new version of FictionPad for them, and you're gonna dig it, truly. The mobile is good, and there are some other features that are great too, so be on the lookout for that! :)_

_I'll see you Thursday for the last chapter! :) – Jen_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**Six Months Later...**

**Ranger's POV**

When my cell phone alarm beeped, I came out of sleep immediately and reached over to grab it, turning it off before it could wake Steph—although my woman could sleep through almost anything, so I didn't really need to worry. I climbed out of bed, pulled the sheet back over her, and moved to the bathroom to pull on sweats and a T-shirt so I could head head down to the gym.

Once I was dressed, I kissed the top of Stephanie's head—the only part that wasn't covered—and then left the apartment.

Lucky was lifting weights in the gym when I got downstairs, and he nodded to me as I came in and headed straight for the treadmill.

"Luca," I said, giving him a nod in return.

Luca Fiore had been working for RangeMan for nearly four months. Two months after Steph's kidnapping, he'd called and asked if the job offer was still good. I'd called him less than a week after we'd returned from Philadelphia in August. It had only taken the rest of the core team and myself a few minutes to come to the decision that we wanted to offer him a place at RangeMan. We'd all been impressed with his ability to remember even the smallest of details when he had no reason to, as well as his ability to strategize tactically. When I first made the offer, he'd politely turned me down, saying he couldn't leave his father alone to run the restaurant. Then when he'd called out of the blue two months later, he'd said his sister had graduated college and was home, wanting to work at the store, so his father had told him to call me, as he'd known how much Luca had wanted the job. I'd hired him immediately, and he'd moved into the RangeMan building and reported to work a week later.

It hadn't taken long for the guys to turn Luca into Lucky, since he had a penchant for kicking our asses around the poker table when we played. He swore it was skill, but Santos had immediately called bullshit and proclaimed that he was just one lucky son of a bitch, and the name had stuck. Stephanie was the only one that never called him by anything but his first name. She was enamored with saying his name with an Italian accent—something he found amusing, since even he didn't have one of those.

"Steph still asleep?" Luca asked, pulling me out of my zone as he moved to one of the other treadmills.

I grinned without looking over. "Completely."

He laughed, starting up the machine and quickly working his way to a jog.

Slipping back into my zone, I let my mind clear of everything but the burn in my muscles as I ran.

Thirty minutes later, I slowed to a cool-down walk and then turned off the treadmill, stepping off and grabbing a towel from the shelf to wipe my face. Moving back to the treadmills, I lightly smacked the handle of Luca's machine to get his attention. When he pulled his ear bud out, I asked, "Wanna spar?"

"Give me a minute," he said, and I nodded, moving to the center of the mats as he slowed the machine down.

~*~OoMH~*~

I finally stepped back, breathing heavily. Luca was damn good on the mats—one of the best at RangeMan, outside of the core team and Hector. I'd kept the upper hand throughout the twenty minutes we'd been sparring, but just barely.

"Not gonna be long till he bests you, Rangeman," Tank said with a grin. He'd come into the gym about halfway through our bout, and rather than start his own workout, he'd opted to watch us. He'd been joined by a few of the other guys, although he was the only to stand and watch, rather than immediately start to work out.

"Fuck off," I growled mildly, flipping him the bird before reaching out and giving Luca a hand up from where I'd taken him down the last time.

"Shit, I dunno about that," Luca groused, shaking his head. "Every time I think I've got you beat, you pull some magical move and I'm suddenly looking up at you from the mats."

Choosing to leave him with that impression, rather than confirm what Tank had said, I patted his shoulder and then turned to head back upstairs.

When I got up to seven, the apartment was still dark. Stephanie was still asleep in the bed, although the sheet had slipped down, exposing most of her back to my view in the dim light peeking through the curtain. I wanted nothing more than to cover her body with mine and touch and kiss every inch of exposed skin, but I resisted. We'd been up late making love, and I didn't want to wake her.

Silently, I closed the bathroom door, pulling off my clothes before turning the water on, climbing into the shower, and stepping under the spray.

As the hot water streamed down, wetting my hair—longer now, much to Stephanie's happiness—and washing away the sweat from my workout, I thought about the woman a few feet away in the bedroom.

In the last six months, Stephanie and I had been happier than either of us had ever been before. She'd moved in with me shortly after our return from Philadelphia. I'd been worried she wouldn't feel safe at RangeMan, but she'd made it abundantly clear that my worries were unfounded. She'd asked Hector to walk us both through the changes he'd made to the system to prevent what had happened before from happening again.

When I'd told her that I'd set up one more security precaution, she'd asked if I felt safe again. The sensors set up around the edge of the roof were hooked up to directly notify the core team and Hector. No one else knew about them, and they were hidden so they weren't noticeable unless you knew what you were looking for. We'd adjusted them to account for the birds that liked to land on the roof, but anything over five pounds that came over the edge of the roof would alert the five of us. Between that and Hector's assurances that no one could get into the system, I did indeed feel secure having Stephanie there. She'd moved in the next day.

We'd spent Thanksgiving with Stephanie's family, opting to go to Newark the day after so Stephanie could finally meet mine. It had been a gentle introduction—only my parents and Grandma Rosa—and as I'd promised Stephanie, they had loved her. When Christmas rolled around, we'd spent Christmas Eve with Stephanie's family, watching her nieces open the presents from us and going to midnight mass with them, and then Christmas morning, we'd gone back down to Newark to spend the day with my family—my _entire_ family. Stephanie had been overwhelmed, meeting all four of my siblings and their spouses and children, but by the time we got back to RangeMan, she was already trying to figure out when we could go back. I'd fallen even more in love with her that day, watching her accept my family as she had. Now, almost six weeks later, my future had never been more clear. _Stephanie_ was my future.

As if my thoughts had woken her, the bathroom door opened and Stephanie stepped inside. I was quiet as she did her business on the other side of the bathroom, and when she pulled the shower door open, I stepped back, giving her room to move under the spray.

"Morning," she mumbled, wrapping her arms around me.

"Morning, Babe." I dipped my head down to kiss her when she looked up at me. "Did I wake you?"

She shook her head, but didn't comment. When she stepped back into the spray, wetting her hair, I swallowed hard. With her arms up, her chest rose, pushing her breasts up, like they were begging to be touched. The water sluiced down her body, and I wanted to catch every drop with my tongue as they dripped from her pink nipples and trailed down her curves, gathering in the trimmed thatch of hair between her thighs.

"Are you going to stand there all day, or are you going to touch me?" she asked suddenly, sounding amused.

I quickly looked up, realizing I'd been watching a single drop of water make its way down her body. She was grinning and cupping her breasts, pinching and teasing her nipples into hard points.

"Babe," I murmured as my hands and mouth brushed hers away so I could do what I'd been itching to do since she'd stepped into the shower.

Stephanie moaned softly as I wrapped my lips around one taut peak, sucking gently, and began teasing the other with my fingers. Her breasts were the perfect size, not too big, but big enough that I could feel the weight in my hands as I cupped them. I kissed my way across her chest, repeating the actions on her other breast.

After one last tease to her sensitive, pebbled tip, I began kissing my way down. I stopped once to take the skin of the underside of her breast into my mouth, sucking hard and leaving a red spot that was visible proof of our time together. Dropping to my knees, I kissed my way over the soft curve of her belly, dipping my tongue into her navel before moving farther south. I nipped at the skin on both hipbones, delighting in the way Stephanie gasped and slapped her hands against the shower wall, as if the sensation was almost too much.

Trailing my tongue along the crease of her thigh, I groaned as her scent suddenly overwhelmed me. Her arousal, musky, yet enticingly erotic, was growing the closer I got to where she wanted me the most. I took a deep breath, letting it wash over me—the proof of how much she desired me was a heady feeling. After a moment, I picked up one of her legs and pulled it over my shoulder, which opened her to my view.

She was swollen and visibly wet, from more than just the shower. Her clit was peeking out from her lips, as if begging for attention...but for the moment, I ignored it. Instead, I leaned in and licked from the bottom of her slit to the top, pulling away before I reached the sensitive bud. I groaned as her taste exploded on my tongue. Tart, like green apples, and clean, the evidence of Stephanie's arousal was addictive. Ignoring my throbbing dick, I dove back in for more, burying my face in her pussy and kissing her deep with my tongue, as far inside her as I could get.

Steph cried out and reached down with one hand to tangle her fingers in my hair, holding me to her. "More, Carlos. Fuck!"

Grasping the back of her thigh with one hand, I used the other to hold her open for me. I continued to lick and suck, drawing out her juices and lapping them up as I pushed her higher and higher. She continued to voice her enjoyment, keeping her tight grip on my hair as she thrust her hips to my face as much as I allowed her to move.

My dick was so hard, I was hurting, my balls hanging heavy between my thighs. I needed inside her more than I needed my next breath, but I locked it down, wanting to feel her come on my tongue before I got my own. Stroking her one last time with my tongue, I pulled away long enough to look up at her: face flushed, head thrown back, eyes closed, and breasts heaving with every breath she took, she was the picture of sin and temptation, beautiful and sexy beyond even my wildest dreams.

With two fingers, I gathered her slick wetness before pressing them slowly inside her. Stephanie whined long and low as I teased her clit with my tongue, light flicks against her skin without any of the much-wanted pressure. I started a slow stroking motion with my fingers as I began to circle her clit. By the time I finally lapped at the hard little button peeking through its hood, Stephanie was shaking, gripping my hair like a lifeline and tugging to the point of pain—a pain I relished, as it heightened my own arousal, yet kept me from coming without even touching myself, which I was close to doing, just from watching and tasting my Babe.

"C-Carlos, please," Stephanie stuttered, clenching tight around my fingers.

I hummed as I finally wrapped my lips around her clit, teasing it with my tongue and teeth as I curled my fingers, and Stephanie cried out, jerking her hips hard as she came. I continued stroking her, lapping up every drop of her arousal as it spilled out around my fingers, until her breathing began to even out.

Carefully setting her leg back on the floor of the shower, I stood and moved to the bench, taking a seat and tugging her over to me.

"Ride me, Babe," I told her, pulling her down so she was straddling my thighs, facing me.

Stephanie reached down and wrapped her slender fingers around my dick, which was threatening to burst right out of my skin, it was so hard. She stroked a few times before raising up on her toes and then lowering herself back down over me. She sank down slowly until our thighs were flush against one another's and I was buried to the hilt.

"_Dios,_" I guttered, feeling her already clenching around me. She was still so sensitive that it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge again.

Cupping her face, I angled her head and plundered her mouth with my tongue as she began moving up and down my shaft. She whimpered as she tasted herself on me, pulling away to kiss and lick at my lips.

"Christ, that's sexy," I murmured against her lips. "You taste good, don't you, Babe?"

Stephanie nodded, wrapping her arms around my neck and tangling her hand in my hair at the base of my neck as she continued to ride my dick.

Using her hair, I pulled her back and attached my lips to her throat, sucking and kissing and teasing, scraping my teeth across her skin as I began to thrust up into her. My balls were drawn up tight, and I needed a release, but I wanted her to come again with me. Reaching between us, I thumbed her clit, pressing hard.

"Come for me, Babe. I wanna feel you come around my cock."

When my nail scraped across her clit and I bit gently at the tender skin under her ear, she shattered, crying out my name and nearly breaking my dick off, she squeezed me so hard.

Heat raced through my veins, and my entire body went numb for a moment before my world exploded. My dick pulsed, swelling, and then I spilled myself inside her with a roar that echoed off the shower walls.

I felt drained—both literally and physically—a few minutes later as I helped Stephanie from my lap. We made quick work of actually showering ourselves clean, and before we stepped out, I kissed her once more.

"Love you," she breathed against my lips.

Smiling softly at her words, I could do nothing but echo her. "_Te quiero,_ Stephanie. _Mi corazón._"

~*~OoMH~*~

**Stephanie's POV**

Weekly dinners at my parents' house had turned into bi-monthly dinners since Ranger and I had become an official couple after my kidnapping. We went to my parents' one week, his parents' the next, and so on. My mom and I had grown closer over the last few months, once she realized I was happier with Ranger than I'd ever been with Joe. So that, combined with the fact that one out of the two dinners a month, Val and her family went to Albert's parents' for dinner, and things were—for the most part—a lot calmer on our visits. I still went over a couple of times a week for lunch, simply because my mom requested it, but since our relationship was better, it was a lot more fun. I got good food without the drama, which was a nice change.

As Ranger parked the Cayenne in front of the house, I smiled, remembering that tonight was just us, my parents, and Grandma Mazur. I loved my sister and nieces, but with three girls, it was definitely loud and overwhelming.

Ranger met me at my door and smiled, taking my hand.

Just as they always did, my mom and grandma were waiting at the door. The difference now was they were all smiles, rather than the disapproving or worried looks I used to get from my mom.

"Good, good, you're here," my mother said, pulling me into a hug. "Dinner's almost ready. I hope you're hungry. We're having pot roast, with gravy on the side, plus your choice of mashed potatoes or wild rice."

She was really going all-out to accommodate Ranger's eating habits, while still letting the rest of us eat what we wanted.

When I raised an eyebrow at her, she simply smiled and turned to Ranger, hugging him as well. He awkwardly patted her back, still not used to the affection from her, even after nearly six months of it.

"Hi, Grandma," I said, accepting her fierce hug.

"Did you hear?" she asked, stepping back. "Your sister's pregnant again."

"Again?" I squeaked, shaking my head. I started to make a comment about needing to teach my sister the finer points of birth control, but she and Albert were doing well and this was what she'd always wanted, so who was I to argue. Smiling, I said, "That's great. I'll have to go by and see her next week and offer to watch the girls while she naps, since I know she'll need it."

Grandma Mazur nodded and then reached out to Ranger, who deftly avoided her hug by taking her hands in his instead and kissing the back of one.

"Mrs. Mazur, it's a pleasure to see you, ma'am."

She giggled like a school girl, her eyes twinkling. "Oh you. Always so charming."

"Here, ma'am. Let me get the door for you."

And just like that, he all but forced her to go into the house before him, keeping his backside protected from her wandering hands.

"Mrs. Plum," he continued with a sweep of his hand.

"Now, Ranger, I've told you to call me Helen." But she still smiled and walked inside before giving him a chance to respond.

His eyes were light and amused when he looked at me, shaking his head. "Babe, your family..."

Chuckling softly, I nodded. "I know."

Knowing he wouldn't allow otherwise, I stepped into the house before him and then moved aside so he could come in. Once the door was closed, I wrapped my arm around his waist and we moved farther into the house. Just before we reached the living room, I slid my hand down and pinched, grinning at his surprised expression.

"Someone has to," I teased.

"Babe..."

Dancing out of the way of his fingers, which were clearly on a mission of their own, I made my way into the kitchen while he went to visit with my dad. They'd quickly figured out they had a common interest in the History and Military Channels, and they would always talk about whatever program had kept their attention since they'd seen each other last. I found it adorable, and I made sure to tease Ranger about it every time we left my parents' house.

When I got to the kitchen, my grandma was sitting at the small kitchen table, watching my mom, who was adding the veggies from the pot roast around the meat on the serving platter.

"Oh good. Stephanie, would you start taking food to the table, please? The rice needs five more minutes."

I nodded and grabbed the bowl of mashed potatoes in one hand and the salad—which had become a staple at dinners with my parents—in the other, carrying them into the dining room. Stopping short, I looked harder at the table. Instead of the normal dishes and glassware we used, my mom had set out her fancy china, the stuff we only used at holidays. Shrugging, I set the food on the table, putting the salad closer to Ranger's seat and the potatoes by my dad's, and then went back to the kitchen.

"Pour the wine," my mother instructed, handing me a bottle. "And here's Ranger's water."

I smiled, taking them both and shaking my head as I made my way back to the dining room.

By the time I finished pouring the wine and leaving the bottle by my mother's chair, she and my grandma were coming into the room carrying the roast and veggies and the small bowl of wild rice.

"Grab your father and Carlos," she said, setting the roast in the middle of the table and then turning to take the rice, which I knew would end up in front of Ranger.

Once we were all seated around the dinner table, my mother surprised me by reaching out and grasping Ranger's hand in her right and my grandma's hand in her left.

"I'd like Frank to say a prayer tonight," she said softly. "With Valerie's announcement and...well, just life, I think extra prayers and thanking God can't hurt."

I smiled, nodding, and joined hand's with my dad—who cringed slightly before taking Grandma Mazur's—and linking my fingers with Ranger.

After a short prayer for Val and the baby, the rest of our family's continued health, happiness, and all our blessings, my dad closed with, "Bless us O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ, our Lord. Amen."

Dinner was low-key, although my mom, grandma, and I kept a running conversation throughout. Ranger smiled when I added rice to my plate instead of potatoes, and it grew when I added a large portion of salad as well.

"Proud of you, Babe," he murmured into my ear.

"Hey," I said with a shrug. "My jeans are looser, and that's a good thing. Plus, my mom has pineapple upside-down cake in the kitchen, so I figured I'd better choose well now."

He chuckled and sat back, taking another bite of the pot roast—without gravy. Even I hadn't given up the gravy, although I hadn't added any to the rice, which I would've done with the potatoes.

Once the last plate had been pushed away, my mom stood, grabbing her plate and my grandma's. I followed behind her after picking up the other plates.

"I've got these," she said when I set them on the counter beside the sink. "Could you start bringing in the food?"

"Sure."

I left the room and smiled at the others as I grabbed the pot roast. Grandma Mazur was telling Ranger, who had a look of interest on his face—even though I could tell that it was solely out of politeness—about her latest date with Eugene Mancini, and my dad was trying hard to think of anything other than where they'd gone necking.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Mazur," Ranger interrupted, standing. "Let me help you with that, Stephanie."

He took the pot roast from me and then picked up the rice and salad, leaving me with the mashed potatoes and gravy boat.

"Chicken," I teased quietly as we walked through the kitchen doorway.

"Damn straight," he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear. Louder, he said, "Why don't you go visit with your dad and grandma? I'll help your mom put away the food and bring out dessert." Leaning down, he brushed his lips across my cheek on his way to my ear, where he said just for me, "And pour some more wine when you get out there. I have a feeling I'll need it if your grandma keeps talking..."

I chuckled and set the food on the counter, shaking my head as I moved back to the dining room.

"Oh, good, Stephanie," Grandma said. "Have you ever tried that cherry-flavored edible underwear down at Pleasure Treasures? Eugene likes the watermelon better, but he didn't like the grape at all."

I held back a laugh when my dad blanched. Shaking my head, I said, "No, Grandma, I can't say I have, but I'll keep that in mind."

As I poured more wine for everyone, she began telling me about the next viewing she wanted to attend.

Five minutes later, Ranger and my mom walked out, carrying five small plates with slices of cake on them. Ranger handed my dad's to him and then set a piece down in front of me before taking his seat. I started to tell him I thought he'd given me the wrong plate, but then he turned to me and said, "Oh, this one's yours."

I smiled because the piece on the new plate was much larger than the one he took away from me...and then I looked more closely.

Sitting on the edge of the plate was a beautiful silver ring with a large diamond flanked by two beautiful sapphires. All three were princess-cut, and it was gorgeous, but I suddenly felt frozen, and I couldn't pick it up to look at it more closely.

There was a buzzing in my ears, and when I shook my head, it went away and I realized the room had fallen completely silent. Looking up, I realized my mom and grandma were beaming, both with tears in their eyes. A quick glance at my dad showed pride and even a hint of a shine in his eyes as well. Finally, I turned to Ranger...who was down on one knee.

"Oh!" I gasped softly, my hand flying to my mouth in surprise.

"Babe," he chuckled, reaching out and snagging the ring on his pinkie. There was no trace of his blank face. I was able to read every emotion he was feeling: happiness, confidence, but also a few nerves—which was strange to see on him—but above all that, there was love. It radiated from him and warmed me from the inside out.

"Stephanie," he started again, reaching over and taking my left hand in his, "we've come a long way since that first day in the diner. I didn't take you serious that day, but I quickly learned that you have more tenacity, more drive, and more determination than anyone I've ever met. I fell in love with you before I was able to do anything about it, and over the last two years, my love has only grown. Six months ago, when you told me you loved me, it was the best day of my life. I've learned so many things from you, and every day, you teach me more."

He shook his head. "_Tu me vuelves loca, mi amor, pero te necesito._" At my confused look, he translated, "You drive me crazy, my love, but I need you. I need you to keep me in the light, when the dark sides of my life threaten to close in. I need you to remind me that life is more than work, more than duty, but to be lived and enjoyed...savored. Above all, I need you to love me unconditionally, as I love you."

Pulling the ring from his finger, he held it over the end of my fourth finger on my left hand and took a deep breath. "_Tú eres mi vida._ You are my life, Stephanie Plum. Would you do me the honor of also becoming my wife?"

A thousand thoughts flew through my mind. After my divorce, I'd sworn off marriage, and anytime Joe had even brought up the subject, I'd broken out in hives and run scared. With Ranger, there was none of that. No hives. No nerves. No worry that I would come home and find him on the dining room table with another woman. I trusted Ranger with my life every day, and I'd learned—especially in the last six months—that I could trust him with my heart. Knowing that, my answer was easy.

"Yes," I told him firmly, smiling so wide that it hurt my cheeks. "Yes, I'll marry you!"

Ranger's answering smile was brilliant as he slid the ring onto my finger and then pulled me into his arms, cupping my face as he kissed me, pulling back only when my dad cleared his throat.

"_Te quiero más que la vida misma,_ Babe," Ranger murmured against my lips. "_Dios,_ I love you."

Our story may have started out rocky and we may have had our ups and downs, but as I stood, wrapped in his arms and accepting my family's congratulations, I knew every bump in the road had been worth it. I'd found the man I was meant to spend the rest of my life with, and with him, I felt treasured, like he held the rarest and most beautiful jewel in the world in his hands. I couldn't ask for more than that.

~*~OoMH~*~

_A/N: The last line of Spanish from Ranger is: I love you more than life itself._

_This is it. The last chapter. Thank you so much for all the kind words and the support you gave me throughout this story. I'm sad to mark it as complete, but honestly, this story was so much fun to write, and this was one of my favorite chapters, so I'm glad it's finally getting posted! :)_

_Please, one last time for this one, leave me a note and let me know what you thought! – Jen_


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